All Love's a Stage
by A.C.L.T
Summary: A woman returns to Hogwarts to teach, Filling as many gaps in canon as the story seems to breach. Romance blossoms for the Marauders in the school's hallowed hall. Fun, humor, and drama ensue for all. Please REVIEW if you read.
1. Meet Rose

Disclaimer:

The Harry Potter Universe, including many of the characters and settings, are the property of J.K. Rowling, however they have been changed pretty dramatically from their original forms, so they are more ours than they should be. They still do not really belong to us and this book is not at all for sale. This story was originally based on _Echoes in Eternity_ by The Jedi Wizard Hobbit, but the plot has been almost entirely redone since those first days. What happens to Rose in chapters blank to blankety was dependent on the fate of a wombat named Rosie. Musical lyrics belong to their respective owners.

Dedication:

_To our one loyal and fantastical Reader Kelsey O.,_

_With out you this story would have never been continued, finished, or looked at for about twenty more years. Thanks._

Authors Note: This is completely (almost) AU. We began writing this years ago and picked it up again over this summer. The result is quite an array of places where it doesn't and does comply with the canon. For example, Sirius is alive (as is Dumbledore) but we do deal with the Horcruxes. Think of it as an alternate sixth year for Harry. Have fun, read on, and see if you can spot where the writing style changes. Also, there are quite a few musical references scattered across it. In this chapter, specifically, we use the songs "Girls of the Night," "It's a Dangerous Game," and "The World has Gone Insane" from Jekyll and Hyde in addition to "Turn Back, O' Man" from Godspell.

Enjoy!

* * *

September, 1996

Professor Linyaari walked down an empty hall of Hogwarts. She had been there for a week and this was the first time she had walked down these halls. She hadn't seen any of the teachers, save Dumbledore and McGonagall, and she suspected that none of the teachers even knew she was there. None of the Arithmancy kids had talked about their new teacher, and for that Rose was thankful of. Her foot-steps clicked on the stone floor as her long, black, silk dress played at her feet. Nothing could ever overcome the feeling of walking through your past.

Professor Snape, however, had spent so much of his life in these hallways that it didn't seem so much like a walk through his past as a home and safe-haven. So as he wandered through various hallways during this particular night, patrolling to make sure that no students were up past curfew, his thoughts were relatively calm. They turned to the next day's lessons, ways to torture the Gryffindors (or at least give his own house a running chance against Dumbledore's favorites), Harry Potter, James Potter, the Marauders Map (which would be awfully useful in allowing him to see who was up and where. Night patrolling would be done with), to various other things that just seemed to connect themselves to his train of thought.

Rose concentrated on her feet as she walked down the hallways; it had been so long since she had walked in Hogwarts. Her pale complexion seemed to glow in the small light. Green eyes sparkling as she thought of happy thoughts and then started to sing, her voice drifting through the halls, in a beautiful lullaby. "We're the pleasures of the night time that fade at down, selling pleasures of the night time, 'til night is gone. And then when the party's over, everybody's gone away. We stare at an empty day, what is there to do or say..."

Severus heard the song, the corridors were awfully quiet around this time of night and it connected itself to his thoughts rather easily, a sadistic grin made its way across his face. _'Poor Remus, he's never going to stop being taunted by anyone for the mistake of taking the leading role in that play.'_ The grin stayed in place as he subconsciously followed the song toward its source, and wound up bumping straight into her, reeling in shock. "You're here?" he managed to ask.

Rose took a couple of steps back and looked at Severus. "Yes." Her voice still had the familiar musical quality (formed by too much singing) that he remembered, but other wise she had changed entirely. Her eyes were dim and her long blonde hair was faded and pale. She looked as though she had not seen the sun for a long time and she had not eaten for an even longer time. The black dress was very loose and flowed easily in the halls. "Yes." She repeated quietly with the ghost of a smile on her thin rosy lips.

"And redundant as ever?" he smiled slightly; Rose was actually one of the few people he associated with happiness. Still, she looked different, and he wondered how much her personality had changed over 16 years from the happy, carefree (relatively), teenaged girl he had once known. He decided that a conversation would eventually have to take place in between the two of them and he might as well get it over with that night. "So, how have you been?" he asked.

"Fine enough," Rose said, a smile finally appearing on her lips. She found it amusing that he hadn't changed very much within all the years that she hadn't seen him. She was still a couple of inches shorter then the man. He still had the pale skin, dark, unreadable eyes, and long black greasy hair. He still seemed like an older brother to her. "How have you been, Sev?" She asked.

"I've been fine; everything's become rather boring, really, that is, until recently. Teaching is just routine, and Hogwarts is relatively safe." he said. _'Come on, open up already. I know you've changed but I really do want to know what's happened to you._' "Sev, huh? Still sticking to an old nickname, 'Corna?"

"Teaching. We always had to excel at the same things." Rose sighed inwardly as her heart started to beat faster due to nervousness. "It's nice to see someone from the past. Sev..." She stopped and looked in Severus's eyes, searching for something. _'I know you want to know things, but I don't want to talk here, or now.'_ She sighed again. "Yep, still sticking to the old."

Severus smirked. "You sigh too often, you always have. Now, there seems to be a few things to clear up, so when do you want to talk?" _'I've put up with not knowing for 16 years, I can wait a little bit longer. Or rather, I can put up with you being closed off for as long as necessary, but then you really must open up and just say whatever it is that's haunted you enough to make this much of a difference on you.'_

"Tomorrow. I will talk tomorrow, after classes." Rose nodded. "And that makes me think of a song. But At the moment, I'm tired and will head off to bed soon." She took Severus's hand, her skin was cold, very cold. "I missed you." She smiled and ran her fingers through his. "I really missed my big brother."

"Anything will cue you into a song," Severus said while rolling his eyes. Then he smiled. "I rather miss your singing," he commented, then rather hesitantly added, "And everything else about you, Sis'" he shivered at the coldness of her skin but decided that that too could wait until tomorrow. "Shall I escort you back to your office?" then he realized that he wouldn't have a clue where it was, "What do you teach, anyway?"

"I'm glad to hear you missed me." Rose smiled. "Escort me, please. I teach Arithmancy." She laughed and started to walk, still holding his hand and as she walked and sing as she went along. "I feel your fingers, brushing my shoulders. Your tempting touch, as it tingles my spine. Watching your eyes, as they invade my soul. Forbidden pleasures I'm afraid to make mine. At the touch of your hand, at the sound of your voice, at the moment your eyes meet mine. I am out of my mind, I am out of control. With feelings I can't define." And she stopped as her part of the song ended.

Severus chuckled a little and whispered into her ear, "I thought I was more like a brother to you." He took up his cue none the less, considering Remus wasn't there to take Hyde's character up. "It's a sin with no name, like a tiger to tame, And my senses proclaim, it's a dangerous game." He paused for a moment, he was supposed to. Then he started into the next verse, "A darker dream that has no ending. Something unreal, that you want to be true."

Rose smiled as she heard him sing Remus's part. She stopped walking for a moment. "Are you suggesting that you are more then just a brother to me?" She bushed some hair out of his face and put her hand on his cheek. "If that is true, and with it being so close to the full moon, I might just kiss you right here." She smiled and started to go closer to Severus, teasing him, and probably playing the wrong part for the song. "A strange romance, Out of a mystery tail!"

"The frightened princess doesn't know what to do!" He filled the gap in singing with talking. "No, you're still my little sister, and the one who started the song." Back to singing. . . "Does she just run away? Does she risk it and stay? Either way there's no way to win!" . . . and talking, "Aren't you playing the wrong part?"

"All I know is I'm lost, and I'm counting the cost. My emotions are in a spin. And though no one's to blame." Rose smiled and moved away from Severus. "Ah, Am I being to seductive for your liking?" She smiled, saying it with a very slight Slavic accent for effect, and continued to walk down the hall, and coming to a door, which she opened and let Severus in.

"It's a crime and a shame." Severus stepped inside and heard the door shut behind him. That was Rose; an open door could easily drive her insane. "No, you're just too seductive for comfort."

Rose nodded and stopped the song. "We'll have to continue tomorrow. Stop by any time you want, know that you know where I am, after all. Although you shouldn't be too surprised if I just show up on your door . . . um, step, sometime soon. 'Night." Rose reached up and kissed Severus on the cheek, then opened the door and let Severus leave, shutting the door behind him

Severus walked back to his own quarters humming "The World Has Gone Insane". His shift was over by now, and the song seemed to match, what with people that he hadn't seen in forever just suddenly showing up. Sadly, this made plotting to torture Harry considerably harder. Rose, by flaunting the purity of a unicorn (whether she wanted to or not), could make people feel like they really should be happier, sing more often, and all in al be kinder. Strange creature, she was.

* * *

September, 1972

**_Occlumency Club_**

**_Join if you dare_**

**_Wednesday Nights_**

**_In the Occlumency class room_**

So read the sign inviting the school to the newly created Occlumency club. It was the third year for the soon to be Marauders and this was the news around the school. The sign had been up for quite a while, and already there had been two meetings of the club, slowly people filing out as they figured it wasn't for them. The ones who were left were the Slytherins and Ravenclaws, and just a few Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors who truly were determined to learn occlumency.

Rose passed by the bulletin board for about the millionth time that night. That Wednesday night when everyone seemed to be out or in their dorm rooms. Only Lily, Dimela, Rose, and some few first years were actually in the common room. Rose stopped and looked at the sign, pulled some blonde curls out of her eyes, and then kept on pacing.

"Come on Rosie, go. When I went with you the first night you completely loved it." Dimela said after a little while of watching this sight.

"Rose, you can survive one night without us. Just find some random guy to pair off with, it could be good for your love life. You always seemed like the type to date Ravenclaws anyway," Lily encouraged.

"And then you can come back and tell us all about it, and we'll make fun of you when you really know that we love you dearly and will be so glad because you will be happy." Dimela laughed. "I'll even push you all the way there if I need to."

Rose stopped pacing and looked at her two friends. "Okay, I'll go, but when I come back completely embarrassed and crying, it's your fault." She grabbed her book bag, slung it around her shoulders, and then walked out of the hole and down the hall, down a flight of stairs, and then into the Occlumency class room.

The classroom was not by any means filled with students, but the twenty or so kids in it managed to talk loudly enough amongst themselves to make up a reasonable crowd. The sixth year Ravenclaw prefect was desperately trying to hush the crowd. As Rose walked in, he cast a voice magnifying charm on himself. "Okay, people, settle down and pair off, this is supposed to be about mind reading, this much talking shouldn't be necessary. I'll wait exactly one minute before pairing off the loners and starting this thing."

Rose had walked in and walked around the outer rim of the classroom, then sat down next to certain Slytherin boy with greasy hair and a long nose, and paler than pale skin. She looked around realizing that no one she know was there, which wasn't too surprising.

The Ravenclaw prefect walked along the rows of students and nodded his approval. "Now that I think we're down to the kids who are willing to take this seriously, we'll stop focusing on organizing the mind and obscuring parts of it, and instead try to defend our minds against someone trying to read your thoughts. Now, I want the partner facing the world map to try to get into the mind of the partner facing the diagram of the brain and find out their name. After you've done this, try to get to their front most thoughts and don't be surprised if they're just thinking about trying to block you. Partners facing the diagram, please make a reasonable attempt to block them. Go!"

Rose looked behind the guy she was facing and found that she was the one facing the diagram. She sighed and managed to think about a huge hand waving hello to this guy and blocking off all of her thoughts as she tried to actually get a non-animated block up.

The guy closed his eyes and attempted to sort of move into her mind. At first he was entirely unsuccessful, but he soon saw a gigantic waving hand overtaking all of his senses. He giggled slightly and then refocused to try to see what was behind the huge hand.

Rose had managed to get up a weak wall in front of her thoughts, and soon the huge hand left her mind, after saying adieu. The wall itself was strong enough to keep the boy from seeing her thoughts, but not from hearing them. The thoughts were of course completely random sounding, as the most prominent sound was a song, "Turn back 'o man. For swear thy foolish ways. All now is earth and none may count her days . . ." And it went on, mostly the "Turn back 'o man" part repeating, as if that was how she was managing to put up the block.

The boy actually attempted at this point to send whatever random thoughts or lines or songs he could come up with up with into her mind, hoping to interrupt the repetition and get her to let her wall down for a moment.

She giggled a bit and the wall started to crumble.

He almost sighed with relief as he quickly searched for the girl's name.

Once Rose realized her wall was gone she started to bombard the boy with random thoughts and names to confuse him. "Lily, Purple, Ice cream!, You scream!, James, I'm a guy, Slytherin scum, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Alice, In, Wonder, land, I am queen, uh . . ., Mary . . ." And so the train of randomness continued.

The boy waited patiently for the correct name, though he wasn't quite sure how he'd identify it.

Rose finally got an idea and after a while of her train she started to pry into the boy's mind when he wasn't expecting it.

The boy made a very strong attempt to momentarily think of himself only as "the boy" and tried to use her preoccupation to get at her name, or at least to find something so personal to her that she would be forced to return to her own mind.

The struggle between the minds continued until the Ravenclaw in charge finally told them all that it was time to go. At that point every one started to file out and yet Rose and "the boy" were still left staring blankly at each other. After every one was gone and the night was far enough along that Rose was starting to get tired she left the boys mind and tried to push him from her's.

He made one last desperate attempt to find her name, but then retreated. "That was fun," he commented.

"Oh yes, it was, Boy." Rose responded, picking back up her book bag and looking at him. "Who are you?"

"Severus Snape, also known as that kid who knows all the curses, and you?"

"You have quiet a long name, kid who knows all the curses." She laughed and walked to the door and looked back at him. "Now If I told you who I was that would just defeat the purpose of this whole night." She winked and left the room, happier then she had been when she first entered.

The boy idly pondered over the word "rose" for a little while, then shrugged it off and left to return to the Slytherin dorms, sure that he had found the one truly intelligent Gryffindor.

* * *

End note: Please Review. Simply copying and pasting "I read your story and would like to see it continued" into the review box is plenty good, but constructive criticisms and outright compliments as well as extensive rants or whatnots are even more appreciate. Please do not flame our brainchild. As it is complete, you can expect updates every week. 


	2. Lucys and Mudbloods

**AN:** Welcome to chapter two, posted a mere three days after chapter 1 because the authors are impatient and it is hard to keep a wonderful story all to yourself. We hope you enjoy this latest installment, which is still a part of the series of present scenes that were written a long, long time before the rest of the story. I'll keep this short, because I desperately want this to be easy to read and review.

**Disclaimer:** JK owns the characters and setting. The nice people who wrote the musical of Jekyll and Hyde own "In His Eyes." For more details, see chapter one.

* * *

September, 1996

The next day, around dinner time, Rose stepped out of her office and pulled her robe tightly around her thin figure and the see-through blue dress she was wearing. She walked slowly past the Gryffindor common room and down the stairs, wondering where Severus would be at that moment. As she walked she hummed "In His Eyes" and she concentrated on her feet and the clicks of her steps on the stone.

A group of 6th year Ravenclaws went wide-eyed the moment that they saw their Arithmancy teacher with some sort of see through blue dress dragging along the ground under her robes.

Rose just smiled and continued to walk, not very far from the Ravenclaws, who were still staring at her, Rose ran into Severus and smiled once she saw him. "Thank Merlin it's you," she said, looking back at the Ravenclaw group and then to Severus again.

Severus glared at the Ravenclaws, readily telling them that he would find a way to dock points from their house and give them detention if they didn't bugger off and stop staring at Rose. They went away and he laughed. "Maybe you should choose some more school appropriate clothes instead of setting a bad example for the children. We all know they don't need it."

"Well at this point in my life I'm poorer than dirt and am stuck wearing all of my grandmothers old clothing, she, being a witch, doesn't have many normal clothes. So unless you carry around spare clothing that would fit me . . ." Rose shrugged. "Can we go down to your office?" she asked, her eyes begging, like back when she was 17 and Sirius and her would do puppy dog faces together.

Severus rolled his eyes at the patented puppy dog face. "Sure," he said simply as he turned around and led the way to the dungeons. "And, by the way, the puppy dog face has no real effect; I just don't feel like walking up 5 floors of staircases."

"Okay." She smiled and followed him, loyally. Once they got to the office she sat down and looked around, while subconsciously humming the end of "in His Eyes." Once the song ended Rose looked up at Severus, "It's nice down here. But I suppose that you would like to ask me questions now. I promise that what ever I answer will be the truth." She smiled and pulled her legs up to her chest, then watched Severus.

He sat down on a chair, "And no saying 'no comment', okay?"

"Okay. I promise."

"Good, so what have you been doing for the past 16 years?"

"No comment," Rose said jokingly, and then got serious. "For the beginning of it I traveled a lot, and then when I came back to London I went and stayed with Dimela. I mostly just was in plays for that time, and that didn't give me much money. Soon we went broke and had to split. So I went to Dumbledore and he got me a place to stay for a while, as I looked for a job. And that's about all."

"All right. And Dimela, what has she been doing?"

"Dimela... well, Dimela, she's been working very close to Fudge." Rose smiled, and fiddled her thumbs, looking down at the ground.

"Discreet, are we? What's she doing?"

"What's who doing?" Rose said with a sly smile. She looked back up at Severus and leaned forward in her chair. "She's a Lucy."

Severus went wide eyed and sat there for a little while.

Rose sat and watched him, waiting for some kind of reaction from the man.

"She's a WHAT? HOW DID SHE WIND UP SINKING THAT LOW?"

Rose backed up into her chair and looked at Severus. "Um, well she's a Prostitute. And I don't know how she ending up sinking that low. It's not like I'm happy about it."

"How long has she been . . .?"

"One year."

"Okay. Just a moment while I try to swallow that," and so he tried, and failed, and wound up not blinking for about a minute.

"Severus, are you okay?" Rose asked uneasily.

"No," said Severus. "Anyway, how's your love life been?"

"Fine, I guess." Rose shrugged. "I've had boyfriends come and go, it's really just a way of life for me now, I haven't ever found the guy that's just for me."

Severus decided to shrug that off. " Dimela's within the last year is obvious, but before then?"

Rose paused for a moment before answering, "Dimela never really had a love life."

"Wow, only you then. Quite strange how that works out."

"Now how's that strange?" Rose asked raising an eyebrow and smiling.

"Well, you see how basically everyone who was in a year close to ours wound up with dramatic tragedy ruining their lives. And yet, somehow, you have managed to get a love life, survive, and not go insane while the Potters died, the Longbottoms got tortured to insanity, the Weasleys have been completely broke and have seven kids, a whole bunch of other people have died, and those remaining have no love life whatsoever."

"Okay. Sure. So what about you? Now that you've asked me about everything, what are you?" Rose put her hand, subconsciencly on the death eater mark. "How have you been?" She smiled.

"I'm a double crossing traitor and a spy, but as long as everyone thinks I'm on their side no one cares. I'm also a teacher, probably the one most despised by everyone except the Slytherins. Other than an annoyance of a conscious, though, I'm fine."

Rose laughed, "You are one of the most wonderful people that I have ever met, and yet everyone else seems to hate you." She smiled and stroked his cheek.

"Yes, for most of us, not much has changed."

"Yes." She smiled and continued to stroke his cheek.

Harry walked in. Snape unceremoniously pushed Rose away. Harry's mind tried to register what had just been going on.

Rose stood up quickly and bowed her head to Harry and Severus, then walked out of the room and shut the door, she sunk down beside the door, with an embarrassed smile. She laughed nervously and shook her head, then walked away.

Snape said, "Just a moment," dumped that thought into the pensive, and decided to leave it there. "Alright, Harry, clear your mind. Ready?"

"Um, no, I can't really clear my mind," Harry responded.

"Then dump the thought in the pensive and let's get on with this lesson." Harry did as Snape said and he (Harry) had actually managed to make a bit of progress at it by the end of the night.

* * *

October, 1972

Dimela bounced on her bed and stared at the door into the dorm room as if staring at it would make it open and Rose be there. It was a Wednesday night and Rose should have been back about an hour before then. The girls in the dorm room consisted of Lily Evans, Dimela Lyte, Rose Linyaari, Tina O'conner, and Alexandra Tyberlan. At the moment Lily and Dimela were in the dorm waiting for Rose to come in, Tina was sleeping on her bed, and Alexandra was probably in the common room with her boyfriend. Both Dimela and Lily were sitting on Dimela's bed, which was the closest to the door and there were both determinedly staring at the door impatiently. "Can I summon her?" Dimela muttered, clearly annoyed.

"Accio Rose," Lily said lazily. She waited a moment to listen for any response. "What could possibly be taking her this long?"

Dimela settled down and looked at Lily with a smirk. "Maybe she's found a bloke and is making out with him some where. Or maybe she mentally making out with him somewhere." She giggled and looked back at the door, her blonder than blonde hair had started to fall out of her pony tail from the bouncing.

"Well, in that case we should probably be proud and supporting and tell her to come back when she says she will." Lily sat very still to communicate her anxiety, and her gaze hardly ever veered from the door. "Please, Rose," she begged to the air in general.

Soon the handle to the door turned and a very tired but happy Rose walked in. Before she could even walk into the room Dimela was on top of her, squeezing her and looking her over for any marks of snogging. Once she found none, Dimela, slightly disappointed, walked back to her bed and sat down. "It's good to see you too," Rose said with a little laugh and she shut the door and walked to Dimela's bed, sitting down next to Lily and looking at her two friends. "Is there something wrong?" she asked timidly.

Lily glared at Rose playfully. "What have you been up to while we were impatiently waiting for you?"

"I was at Occlumency Club," Rose said, completely confused. "You guys knew that. It's Wednesday night, remember?"

"Yes. But then you took an extra hour. What's up? Were you snogging with some guy behind our backs?"

"No! Of course not!" Rose looked appalled. "I was just talking with my partner for a little bit, that's all. I must have lost track of time. I'm sorry."

"Lost track of time?" Dimela raised her eyebrows. "You chatted with your partner for an hour, hon."

"Dimela, it appears we've been replaced," Lily said dramatically.

"I feel like chopped liver." Dimela pouted and lay down on her bed pretending to cry into her pillow.

Rose sighed and put her hand on Dimela's shoulder, lying down next to her. "You haven't been replaced. I swear, you two will never be replaced, but I can have other friends too, can't I?"

Dimela sat up and looked at Rose. "I suppose. But tell us, who is this mystery partner?"

"Yes, what is the partner's name, gender, and for goodness sake what were you talking about?"

Rose looked at the comforter and sighed. "It's been lovely weather lately, hasn't it? I do love this season, so close to spring and yet still winter," she said casually trying to change the subject.

"Hun, your partner, now, talk."

"There's nothing really special about him. He's just the random guy I met there, by accident too. I just sat next to him," Rose said with a shrug.

"It's a him?" Dimela rolled her eyes and pretended to faint. "I can't believe you chatted with a guy for an hour without snogging him. Not even once?"

"Don't tell me that you managed to conduct this lengthy conversation without discovering his name." Lily thought about this. "You must be embarrassed. You don't have a crush on Lockheart, do you?"

Rose shook her head and shivered. "How could you think such a thing, Lily?"

Dimela giggled. "Then what is it? Is he a seventh year and you think I'll be insanely jealous? Or maybe he's a teacher . . . You do seem the one that would fall for a teacher, what will all your talk of wanting a guy this is smart, and mature, and can make your heart melt just by looking at you." She said this all in a dramatic fashion

"Or he's actually a second year, therefore embarrassing her greatly. . .or he simply can't be named for technical reasons."

"Or maybe she doesn't really know his name and they didn't really 'chat' that whole time, but instead stared into each other's eyes and sighed obsessively." Dimela laughed.

"And maybe I'm sitting right here and you two don't have to talk about it as if I wasn't here," Rose cut in.

"Well, if you want you can go downstairs as we continue, or you could just tell us." Dimela said hopefully.

"Yes, if you are not talking, you are not here. Come on, please just 'fess up and get it over with. You know we will be forced to bug you about it endlessly until you do."

"Yes but I know that if I tell you, you may not talk to me for the rest of my very short life." Rose replied.

Dimela shook her head. "We'll talk to you, if only to make you feel very very bad for what ever you have done."

"What if we swear some sort of thing whereby we forestall reaction for a day so that we can think it over?"

Rose sighed and walked over to her own bed, which was in between Lily and Dimela's. She looked at her two friends and took a deep breath. "Severus . . . Snape." She replied, then lay down and turned away from them.

Dimela was silent for almost three minutes, which was a record for her, and then blurted out very loudly. "THE GUY WHO CALLED LILY A MUDBLOOD?!?"

Tina sat up in her bed quickly and glared at Dimela. "I'm trying to sleep here! Now either shut up or get out of here." She said grumpily and lay back in bed.

Lily tried to count to ten as she fumed. "Okay, so, you were talking to Snivellus, as the boys are calling him, the egotistical, death-to-all-Gryffindors boy?"

Rose nodded, still facing away from them.

"Rose I thought you were smart! Or at least smarter than I am, but . . . him . . ." Dimela said quietly and in complete shock.

"Well, Rose, I hope that you at least gave him a good talking to while you still had his attention."

Rose turned around and looked at them. "I can't say I did . . ." She mumbled.

"Well, then, what were you doing with him?"

"We were talking. I told you that . . ."

Dimela sighed. "And you never ever, ever, ever snogged him or did anything of the sort?"

"And what were you talking about? How did you wind up with him as your partner anyway?"

Rose sat up. "We were talking about the most random of things that really had nothing to do with anything. And I told you, I just sat next to him without meaning too. I didn't even know who he was at the time, that was months ago it seems. Nothing has happened between us, we just talk, that's all."

"All right, but if you start snogging with him we will have to worry, and if he convinces you to join the dark side you will find that I may have turned against you."

Rose laughed. "I would never do that, I promise you, Lily. Okay?" She sighed. "Now will you be as kind as to permit me to sleep? I'm tired."

"Fine, fine, sleep. I'm actually kind of tired too. The glaring at the door exhausted me." Dimela laughed and kicked Lily of her bed and lay down.

Lily pouted as she moved to her own bed, but was forced to admit that she was very tired as well. "Well, good night, sweet dreams, all that sort of thing." She yawned.

"Good night." Rose and Dimela muttered, one after the other.

* * *

**AN:** Please review. Whether you want to tell us that you worship us or you think we should go to hell, please review. More realistically, if you think that this was just an okay story, hit the review button and announce it, or tell us that you were here and you read. If you plan on continuing to read this in the future. We had 34 hits and only a single review for the last chapter, which is pathetic, we need to know what you think, or that you appreciate us enough to do something. REVIEW! An intelligent review commenting on the plot may even affect the course of the story, written or no, after all, we can add scenes if we feel like it.

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	3. The Infamous Purple Chapter

AN: Welcome to chapter three, and congratulations for making it this far. By our previous statistics (67 hits for chapter one, only 11 for chapter two) I know that you are few and far between, but we hugely appreciate your persistence in reading this fanfic. This chapter brings you a mixed bag of goodies. The present scenes are still what Kokoro refers to as "scary two years ago writing" even after undergoing some editing, and the second purple scene makes almost no sense within the context of the story as a whole although it was originally setting up the entire plot. However, the scene about blondes is pure marauders fun and quite enjoyable.

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**October, 1996**

The next morning, 4 days before the full moon, Rose finally decided to eat something and went into the great hall for the first time that year. She wore the black dress she had worn when she and Severus met the first night, and she had her hair crimped and tumbling down her shoulders. As she walked in and took an empty seat beside Dumbledore and Severus many of the students started talking about the pale new teacher that many of them were seeing for the first time.

And they chattered on, the Arithmancy students rolled their eyes and went back to reading. Then the students realized that even the teachers were in heated gossip about who the new faculty member could possibly be, and they laughed.

Rose looked around and then started to play with the food on her plate, not eating anything there, just staring down at it blankly with a fork in her hand, trying to cut all the food up into tiny pieces, wishing they would just disappear and she wouldn't have to eat any of it. She was starting to think that maybe it was a bad idea to go to the Great Hall.

Severus had spent a considerably amount of the five minutes staring at Rose like she had gone insane.

Rose finally looked up at Severus and tried her best to smile. "Why are you staring at me like that?" She asked, trying her best to sound more joyful then she really was at that moment.

"You've just spent the past five minutes cutting up your nice, small egg into a billion pieces. As long as you're at breakfast, shouldn't you eat something?"

"I'm not really hungry, I just decided that I should come for once." Rose shrugged and turned back to her food. "I feel like a Slytherin, being in my room for forever and only coming out to speak to you, or go to my class."

"Then be more social, and for goodness sake, eat something."

"I never said it is bad to be like a Slytherin," she shrugged, "I don't really want to eat, I'm not that hungry."

"We wouldn't want you to starve to death."

Rose sighed and stuck her fork into a sausage then started to nibble at it.

Severus flicked the back of Rose's forked so that the entire sausage was shoved into her mouth.

Rose coughed as the sausage went down her throat, once it had gone down and she had finished coughing, Rose glared at Severus and then picked up and egg and ate it.

Severus simply smiled at her.

Rose finished the egg. "Happy?"

"No," Severus said and shoved a bit of fruit on her plate.

Rose rolled her eyes and ate it to make Severus happy.

"Now, I'm satisfied."

"Thanks." She smiled and then looked at the DADA teacher, who had been staring at her the whole time. "He has a staring problem."

"Yes, he does, but that's none of our business . . . at the moment."

"At the moment?" Rose sighed.

"Yes, well, he's probably up to something. But right now its breakfast and most evildoers prefer the night."

Rose laughed and looked out over the crowd of students until she found Harry.

"Harry Potter," Snape said to her, "looks despicably like his father."

"I don't think I made a very good fist impression." Rose sighed.

"And what kind of first impression did you make?"

Rose smirked. "Did you throw away the memory?"

"Which memory? Um, yes, probably."

"The memory from last night. If you want I can describe it to you." Rose said leaning towards him.

"Um, sure, or I could just fetch the thing. Oh wait, you haven't made a first impression."

"I haven't?" She asked, taken aback.

"No, walking in this morning was your first impression."

"How?"

"I believe I might have had him toss it too."

Rose smiled. "That's silly, you really shouldn't just run away from memories you don't want.

Severus rolled his eyes, "But it's what the thing's for. Plus, it preserves the memory better than I ever could."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever."

"Okay. Well, when do we get to leave breakfast?"

"Whenever 'we' want to." Rose shrugged.

Severus abruptly spun his chair around, got up, and left the great hall.

Rose looked at him with an eyebrow raised and walked out of the great hall.

Severus glanced back at her. "Are you following me?"

"No, I'm going to my room." She shrugged and started to walk up the stairs. Once to got to a floor above Severus, but was still visible to him, she walked over to a window and looked out into the sunlit day.

"Nice room, you have." Severus called up to her, and then headed in the general direction of the dungeons to go grade papers.

Rose looked at him, smiled a bit, and then walked to her room.

* * *

**Early Marauders 4th Year**

James yawned and lied down under the tree. "This year is going to be different." He said. It was two months into the fourth year and James was determined to actually get Lily to say yes to him this year. Every since the third year when he had seen her doing . . . well actually he had no clue why he had suddenly fallen for the girl but he had and ever since that moment he had wanted her and no one else, and so he would get her any way he could. "So what about you Sirius, what do you have planned for this year?" James asked with a laugh.

"Date every gorgeous girl in the school," Sirius replied, perfectly straitfaced.

"All of them?" James looked at Sirius and laughed. "Well if you even think about touching Lily I'll kill you, or just butt you out of our group, which is a fate worse than death."

Sirius considered this. "Just the blondes then."

"Just the blonde? Why the blondes? There's so many of them!"

"Blondes are the most beautiful, and I don't give a darn about what you say about Lily."

James thought about that and shrugged. "So you'd go out with . . ." He looked around them and spotted a blonde. "Nicole, the Gryffindor one, even though she's vain, has the IQ of her shoe size, and is like the female version of Lockhart?"

"For a few days. After all, she also has a beautiful figure and full knowledge of how to flaunt it."

James rolled his eyes. "What about Narcissa . . . oh wait, she's related to you. never mind." He laughed. "Well fine, go out with all the vain and self-centered and hot blondes."

"You know, James that most people date because they have a sex drive, not because they are seriously interested in spending their lives with the girl."

"I have a sex drive; it's just towards one girl . . ."

Sirius yawned. "Boring. Plus, James, you know you don't stand much of a chance at winning her over right now."

"Well I don't care. You probably don't have much of a chance to get all of the blondes." James said snappily.

"But I do have a chance at some. How about you find yourself another girl, just for a single date, so that you can have some experience in making things romantic when you finally win Lily over."

James looked at Sirius and laughed. "Okay, fine, then I'll take Nicole."

"All right. I'll think I'll go for Ashley first, and work my way down the alphabet."

"A, Ashley and Amanda. B, Bethany. C, Chris Ann and Cynthia. D, Diana and Dimela. E, Emily. F, . . . Okay I give up. You might have to make a list." James laughed.

Sirius laughed too. "Yes, I might. It could be fun just to have a random list of all the blondes in the school. Even if I don't ever get past D or something."

"That might be very amusing. You'll have to do that." James shrugged.

Sirius looked around and smiled. "I believe that I see Ashley. I'll be back in a moment, once I have a girlfriend." Sirius got up and walked as casually as he could to a group of girls.

James laughed and lay back down looking at the clouds.

Sirius returned only a couple of minutes later. "Well, Jamsey, it appears that it is very easy to win a girl, assuming that they don't despise your guts."

James rolled his eyes. "Well you are going after Blondes my dear Sirius, they are quite easy to win over."

"Well, James, maybe you should learn that blondes can be preferable to red heads just for that reason, as well as others."

"You'll have to go through these girls like, one in a week." James said.

"Great, I can do that," said Sirius, and so began a lengthy and awkward quest to date every blonde in the school, which was brought to an abrupt halt by actual love only about a year after its start.

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_AN2: At this point you may stop reading and drop a review. There are some important concepts in the scene, for example, half-breeds act differently around the full moon, Remus and Sirius are at the school, and before they got there DADA was being taught by someone very creepy, therefore we cannot entirely do away with this._

_However, there are also some very embarrassing aspects of this scene including the fact that Severus actually resists Rose and nearly everyone is fairly out of character. Also the promise ring and letters mentioned in this scene are hardly followed up on at all and got lost from the rest of the story. Just a warning, read on if you must, otherwise drop a review now._

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**October 1996**

The next day was a very sunny Saturday and all the kids were out side of the castle.

And all of the teachers that got no sun stayed inside.

Rose and Professor McGonagall were sitting in the great hall at the Gryffindor table and talking.

"So how is it being back here?" Professor McGonagall asked, taking a sip of the glass in front of her and smiling.

Rose shrugged and looked down at the chess game that the two were playing. "It's nice. This place was home for most of us and now it's like I'm finally home from a very long trip away. What about you? How do you like teaching among all your old students?"

Professor McGonagall laughed. "I'm proud of most of you. It's interesting too see how you all have changed and grown through out the years. And I know I sound very much like a teacher right now, but it's true. I'm proud and it makes me feel like I'm so very old."

Rose laughed. "Don't feel too old. I mean Headmaster Dumbledore has years on you. You aren't old yet."

Professor McGonagall nodded. "I think we've pretty much given up on this game of chess." She smiled. "How are you Rose?"

"I'm as good as can be expected I suppose. We were all war children after all . . . or still are, I guess." She smiled a bit. "My life has probably been easier than most of my old class mates."

"That's probably true. You were able to escape for a bit, take a break, most of us have been stuck in the middle of the war and have no way to leave it."

Rose sighed and shook her head. "It's sad."

Professor McGonagall nodded and then stood up. "I'm going to leave you Miss Rose, as I have some business to take care of. Thank you for keeping me company here." She smiled and walked out of the great hall.

Rose soon stood up and walked out of the great hall, then started walking around looking for something.

Rose had begun singing, or at least trying to sing her part of a song. "It's not everyday, me friends and I have gents like you just stopping by. Before you leave you'll know just why you came here." She stopped and sighed when Remus's voice didn't just come out of no where.

However Sirius's did. "Of that my dear, I've little doubt, one only has to look about to figure out the game here. Yet I sense there's more to you." She heard scribbling in the background.

Rose turned around quickly her face becoming paler. "Si... Sirius?" She took a step back and looked at him, thinking she was dreaming or something. It wasn't that he was a convicted murderer that was standing before her; it was that she never expected to see Sirius Black at the castle where he could be easily found.

When Rose had first started teaching there, about a month ago, Dumbledore had pulled her aside one day and explained the whole Sirius/Peter ordeal to Rose. It had taken her a day, three hours, and a lot of proof for her to believe him, but in the end she did.

"You look like you've just seen a ghost." Sirius smirked.

Rose ran over to Sirius and hugged him. "What's the scribbling?"

"The card that I was trying to whip up for the end of the song in case you continued."

"Card? Oh." Rose laughed then suddenly stopped and whipped around. "I have to find Sev!" As she remembered where she had been going, and trying not to think about the other person that would be at the castle with Sirius.

"Why?"

"Because I haven't seen him yet today." Rose shrugged and started to walk, but stopped a few steps away finally giving up on her denial. "Is... is Re... Remus here?"

"Yes, of course he is. And you haven't seen us in 16 years."

"Oh Sirius..." Rose turned around and hugged Sirius again.

Sirius returned the hug. "Okay. So what are you 'Oh, Sirius'ing me for, and can we get away from the front hallway?"

"Sure." Rose pulled Sirius up to her office and shut the door. "I missed you so much."

"I know. I did too. I missed you all the entire time."

"I did too. It was sad to be away from you." Rose sighed and sat down on the couch against the wall in her office and sighed. She pulled Sirius down on the couch next to her. "Why are you and Remus here?"

"Remus is here because he's going to take over the DADA position. I'm here . . . with great amounts of pleading and trying to talk sense into Dumbledore. He thinks it's too dangerous for me to be here. I say that my life's worth nothing without a little risk." Sirius smiled. "So, with a few threats and practical jokes, here I am."

"Remus is teaching here?" Rose sighed. "Yeah, my life is doomed. But I'm glad that you're here. Now I'll have two brothers to help me. Does Harry know you're here?" She picked up a little box and pulled out a candy from it then started to suck on the candy.

"Harry doesn't know I'm here yet. I was about go tell him, or pounce on him, or something, when I heard you singing. Anyway, why does Remus teaching doom you?" He watched her eat the candy for a few moments. "Can I have one?"

Rose handed Sirius a candy and then leaned forward towards Sirius. "I just didn't really want to see him for a while."

"And you haven't."

"For a longer while," Rose flicked Sirius's forehead and then leaned back into the soft pillows on the couch and sighed. "I guess I'll have to live." She shrugged and threw a candy at Sirius's head.

Sirius picked up the pillow next to him, and threw it at Rose's head. "Yes, you will have to live, because he is here. Plus, what's so horrible about seeing an old friend?"

"An old love….." Rose caught the pillow and hugged it. "Okay, fine. I need to talk to Harry at some point, I've got something to give him."

"Wait, what are you going to give him? Because a few things in those books might change his view of his perfect parents forever. Oh yeah, and the tape, of backstage. Please don't say that you're going to show him that tape."

"Why would I show him anything like that? It's nothing about his parents making out or of the play. I don't think the pictures of the play should ever be seen by anyone that wasn't there. So, you don't really have to worry." Rose laughed and threw the pillow back at Sirius. "So where is Harry...? And Remus…….. And Severus."

"Harry's outside, with all the rest of the student body. Remus is probably talking to Harry and friends, and Severus. I don't wanna know. So, are we going to go see them?"

"Yeah, let's go see Harry. And then I'll find Severus." Rose smiled and stood up. She then dug in her desk and grabbed a very large envelope. "Okay, let's go!"

"Woof," Padfoot replied, and trotted after her.

Rose smiled and quickly got outside, then looked around the grounds for Harry. She saw him sitting with Ron, Hermione, Remus, and Hagrid at Hagrid's Hut. Rose smiled and walked over to them then hugged Hagrid. "Hey! It's been so long since I saw you last." She said with a huge smile. And then she turned to Harry and the other kids, trying her best to avoid Remus's eyes,

This wasn't hard considering that he blushed slightly at the sound of her voice and stared determinedly at a blade of grass. Harry, Ron, and Hermione couldn't help but stare at Rose and Padfoot. Harry was the first to speak. "Okay, so, who are you?"

Rose smiled and looked at Harry. "I'm Professor Linyaari, I teach Arithmancy. But any who, I have a present for you. Okay, well not a present but, some things that I have that were you parents." She shrugged and put her hand on Patfoot's head.

Padfoot looked up at her questioningly. Harry asked, "So, what are they and how did you get them?"

"Well I got them because your Mum was my best friend." Rose took out two wands from the envelope. "Well these are their wands. And then the rest of the stuff is just pictures and letters." She handed him the envelope and wands, then sat down next to padfoot and started to pet him.

Padfoot inched forward to look at the envelope. Remus had grabbed James' wand. "I always wondered what had happened to these." Hermione fished through the letters, every once in a while shoving one at Harry. Ron was flipping through pictures. All in all the small giftish thing seemed to have perked everyone's curiosity.

"Dumbledore had them." Rose shrugged and finally looked at Remus and smiled. "Oh and some of the letter's aren't really from Lily or James but I decided to put them in there. So if you find some letters by Sirius to someone named Dimela, well they are supposed to be there."

"Like this one?" Hermione said, holding up a letter from Sirius to Dimela.

Hagrid laughed and took the letter from Hermione and read it himself, then laughed and handed it back. "Those two were crazy back then."

"Still are." Rose said scratching Padfoot behind the ears. "So, um, Remus…." she said trying to break the very uncomfortable silence between them that every one had noticed and were all hoping that it would go away soon.

"Rose, long time, no see," Remus said in an almost businesslike manner. "So, what have you been doing this whole time?"

Rose looked down at the grass. _'I always imagined this to be so much happier. But what else could have happened?' _Rose shrugged. "Nothing really, just trying to keep a job." She moved her eyes to Padfoot.

Padfoot rolled his eyes at the two of them. _'Half breeds. Why can't they just enjoy life every once in a while?'_

Remus smiled. "Story of our lives. Actually talk to you later? Sometime it can seem important to keep up the façade around the students."

Rose looked a bit depressed about that, but she stood up. "Well, Harry, I hope you like the stuff." She then turned to Padfoot. "I'm going to go talk to Sev, you want to come?"

Padfoot stared at her in a way that quite clearly expressed that she must have gone insane.

Rose rolled her eyes and walked away, stealing one more look at Remus before she went through a crowd of students.

Padfoot rolled his eyes again and barked at Harry, who had stood up. Harry looked back at Padfoot and Padfoot ran towards Harry, teeth bared and barking. Everyone else laughed. Harry ran.

"Well, let's see, in between them we've got a crush and an inferiority complex. If you can figure out a way to make them happy, go right ahead and try. The rest of us have been for nearly forever, but it hasn't worked yet," Hagrid said.

Rose walked to the doors of Hogwarts and looked around the outside for Severus, once she didn't see him she turned around and walking into the school, looking for Severus.

Severus walked over to her. "What were you doing out there? You don't look like you like the sun."

"I had to give something to Harry, and then I got to say 'hi' to Remus." Rose shrugged and sat down on the steps closest to her. "I was going to look for you earlier, but I ran into Sirius." She shrugged and pulled something out of her pocket, then clutched her hand around it.

"Ah. So the marauders are back at Hogwarts, minus the dead guy and the traitor. What did you have in your pocket?"

Rose opened her hand and showed Severus a beautiful white gold ring with a red stone in the middle of a circle of diamonds. Rose looked as though she was trying to hold back tears, but was losing the battle.

Severus looked at it for a few moments, then at Rose's teary eyes. "That clearly has some sort of sentimental significance to you. Would you care to tell me what it is?"

"Remus gave it to me." Rose sighed and looked up at Severus, a tear falling down her cheek. "He still has the same effect on me, it's gotten extremely annoying by now." Rose stood up. "Lets go somewhere."

Severus laughed and led her down to the dungeons. "The one place where no one wants to be on a perfectly beautiful day." They eventually walked into Severus's office. "And the rest of your tear-filled story?"

Rose smiled through the tears that had broken through and she sat down and hugged her knees, burying her head in her knees. "I thought that maybe all the feelings would have gone away, or at least he would talk to me longer then he did." Rose wiped some of her tears away and looked at Severus.

"Well, if the 'annoying' feelings haven't gone away you'll just have to live with them. It seems like your stuck loving an idiotic werewolf for the rest of your life. Anyway, why didn't he talk to you?"

Rose slightly laughed. "He said that he had to keep up a 'façade' around the students." She opened her hand and looked down at the ring, which had made an imprint on her hand from how hard she was holding it. "I don't care about Facades, I don't want to care about facades."

"You and the rest of the staff can not blame Remus for wanting to keep the façade, though. And that includes the house elves." Severus smiled. "It's funny how little changes since around 100 years ago."

"Severus! It's been 16 years since I've last talked to Remus, I can blame him for saying that! I wouldn't care who would listen." Rose stood up and stormed out of the room then to the Potion's class room. She shut the door and sat down in her old seat and looked around the room, fingering the ring. "They're bloody Idiots."

Nearly headless Nick floated in and decided to talk to her. "We're all idiots. Even you, I'm sure, are an idiot in your own way. Like, um, you always seemed considerably stupid about not being able to convince people that you're not a werewolf."

Rose turned and looked at Nick, a smile forming on her face. "I was talking about men. But yes." She turned her head and looked at the door. "I should go back to Severus and apologize."

"Go ahead. You know, you are about the only one who can make him act anything but hateful. Anyway, goodbye then. Have fun." And with that, he floated through a wall.

"Thanks Nick." Rose whispered. She then stood up and walked out of the potions classroom, after checking the time, and then knocked on Severus's office door.

"If your Rose, come in. Otherwise, GO AWAY!" came the reply.

Rose smiled and opened the door then took a step in the closed it. She leaned against the wall and looked at Severus for a while, until she finally spoke. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. So, how are you? Still thoroughly depressed?"

"I'm better. Nick always makes me feel better." Rose smiled and sat down on the ground, still leaning on the door. "I'm being too emotional."

"Yes, you are. Then again, it is that time of month, now, isn't it?"

"Now which time of month? There are two for me you know." Rose laughed.

"The one that I would know the time of."

"But I don't get emotional on that time! I just get…… well, weird." Rose stood up and opened the door. "Let's go take a walk."

"Alright, let's." Severus said and stood up. "After you, I have no clue where we're going."

Rose smiled and took Severus's hand then walked out side. Most of the kids had gone inside, though a few groups still hung around. Patfoot, Remus, Harry, Hagrid, Ron, and Hermione were in Hagid's hut talking. Rose pulled Severus to a tree that was close to the lake and yet in eye shot of Hagrid's hut. She sat down facing the Forbidden Forest.

Severus smirked as he got an idea. Sitting down next to Rose, he reached over and. . .tickled her.

Rose screamed and then fell over laughed and trying to get Severus to stop.

"What was that?" Hermione asked, she looked out the window and gasped. "Oh… My…..Gosh….."

The others automatically gathered around the window to see what caused Hermione to say that. Harry and Ron stood wide eyed and opened mouthed at the side of Severus they thought they would never, ever see.

Remus and Sirius looked ever so slightly disgusted.

Hagrid just stared.

"Severus!" Rose pleaded once Severus stopped tickling her. She then glared at him, and then got a smirk. "For that you will pay, I know exactly what to do." The smirk became bigger and she waited for Severus to reply.

Severus scooted away from her. "What are you going to do?"

"Oh, I'll just seduce you, nothing big." She licked her lips and then put her face an inch away from Severus and ran her hand down his arm.

He flinched and moved away from her. "Have you gone insane?"

Hermione had gasped again when she heard her Professor talk about seducing someone like Severus and she moved away from the window. "Some one has to stop that." She said looking at Sirius and Remus.

Rose had moving closer to Severus and pushed him up to the tree. "No, I haven't gone insane." She said in a musical voice, which proved she clearly wasn't serious.

"Oh. . .God." Was all Severus said as he suddenly realized that he wasn't quite pinned and ran for it.

Sirius was too busy laughing his head off to attempt to stop anything. "Look at that. It's a good thing for Remus that she still considers him an older brother." This caused everyone except Remus (who was too busy glaring at him to follow it) to stare at him like he had quite clearly gone insane if that was how you treat an older brother.

Rose had grabbed Severus's hand before he could run too far. "Sev, you do know I wouldn't ever do anything like that to you. You're my big brother." She smiled and pulled him back to the tree then sat down. "I was just acting. It was fun."

"Well, in that case . . ." Severus said, still looking a bit shocked. "You're a wonderful actress, but that was not funny."

"Well I'm sorry." Rose sighed. "I won't ever do that again. But you didn't act like this last time I did it. Anyway, what do you expect from me around the full moon?" She shrugged and lay down. "I need a man."

"Exactly that, that's part of what makes it so scary. Yes, you do. The poor guy, whoever he'll be, will have to put up with that on probably your first date with your luck."

"Oh shut up." Rose threw a bundle of grass at Severus then looked back at the Forbidden Forest.

"Um, Professor Lupin, I'm confused. What just happened there?" Hermione asked looking back at Rose and Severus, and then she turned to Sirius and looked at him in a 'talk to me now' way.

To avoid any sort of strange explanation that Sirius would be prone to give, Remus answered Hermione. "That is a wonderful act. Anyway, you don't need to worry about it, we can assure you that there is no romantic interest from Rose to Severus whether or not that just happened."

Harry couldn't help but continue to stare out the window. Ron just sat down and looked confused.

Rose pulled the ring out of her pocket and held it up so the sun glinted off of it, and so the people in the hut could also see it. "And I thought this year was going to be so dull."

Hermione squealed when she saw the ring. "It's so beautiful! Is she engaged? Oh, but then why does she never wear it?" She asked looking at Sirius.

Sirius laughed. "Engaged? No, not yet. It's a promise ring."

"Who gave it to her then? Professor Snape? And what's the promise?" Hermione sat down and looked at Sirius like a little kid being told a very interesting story.

Yet, again, Remus wound up answering. "The promise is that she'd never forget me," he said, smiling. "I'm glad to see that she still has it."

Hermione looked a Remus with a little glint in her eye. "Oh…" She said smiling.

"Severus, what do we do now?" Rose asked putting away the ring and turning to Severus. "I'm bored, and I want to have some fun." Rose smiled. "I really just want to do something."

"I've never quite been the most fun person to hang out with. Still, what is your definition of fun?" Severus replied.

"Oh, Severus you know what my definition of fun is. We could always go fly to the Amazon, Talk to Hagrid, go down to the potion's classroom, go to my office, bug Professor McGonagall, eat the heads of chocolate bunnies, Find Padfoot and play catch, Find Remus and, Well actually let's not find Remus, once he wants to talk to me he can come to me. So anyway, we could go down to your office, we could go for a swim in the lake, we could jump off a cliff, or we could blackmail Fudge." Rose replied, looked up at the sky as she listed the things.

"Let's go to your office and eat the heads off of chocolate bunnies. It sounds better than jumping off a cliff, anyway." Severus said, stood up, and brushed grass off of his robes.

Rose laughed and stood up, then led Severus to her office.

Hermione watched them leave, and then turned to Sirius and Remus. "Why does Professor Linyaari like Professor Snape? He's too dark and mean to be friends with someone . . . with anyone."

Sirius took this one. "Did you see the way he was acting just now? Well, he's not always all that dark and depressing, apparently. Around her, at least, he can seem all warm and comforting, it's creepy. As for how she originally got to know that about him, we'll never know."

"Sirius, can I talk to you alone?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Sure, Hermione, where?" Sirius replied. "Find a spot to talk in, and sure, we can talk."

Hermione looked out the window, made sure no one was outside, and then pulled Sirius outside and to the pumpkin patch by Hagrid's house. "How long have you known Professor Linyaari? Who's Dimela? And do Professor Linyaari and Professor Lupin actually have something between them?"

"I've known Rose for, well, since my first year, technically. She was quite shy back then though. Dimela is a girl who was in my year and who I haven't seen in 16 years." Sirius stared into space for a few moments. "Rose and Remus, anyway, most certainly have something between them."

Hermione smiled. "So then if the Professor's have something between them, then why was there an uncomfortable silence between them, and why did Professor Lupin tell Professor Linyaari that they could talk later? Shouldn't he just have taken her into Hogwarts or something?"

"There was an uncomfortable silence between them because, well, they've never really gotten anywhere and so it's still what we could call a teenaged crush. Quite annoying, that's what it really is. He told her that they could talk later because it's too close to the full moon for either of their comfort You'll see that they'll both disappear in three days and no, she's not a werewolf. She is a. . .anyway. I'm not going to go on betraying my friends here so you'll just have to live with they both act slightly different around the full moon. Their senses get kicked into overdrive or something."

"Okay, thanks."

* * *

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	4. Potions, Potions, Potions

AN: Ah, Chapter four already, about the time in the story when you finally get to find out what Rose is, precisely. Also bringing you the pepper upper scene, and the one and only actual time that we show a potions class in the story, taught by Slughorn, of course, due to being a past scene. Slowly but surely we near the end of what Kokoro refers to as the "scary, two-years-ago writing," which is a mouthful in and of itself. Still, a good fun chapter awaits you so read on, and do remember to leave us an honest review at the end, whether you loved it, hated it, or felt it was absolutely typical.

* * *

**Marauders' Fourth Year**

The full moon shone over Hogwarts grounds, leaving a nice shimmer on the lake as is inched its way up the horizon. No one was there to appreciate the view it seemed, as all the children of Hogwarts were safely sleeping and all the teachers had no need to watch a moon on its slow journey. And yet in the forest there was a spot, a low valley. Its lush grass grew with spotted flowers and a nice weeping willow whose bottom leaves hit the water of the lake. From this spot one could have a perfect view of the moon rise and all of its beauties, and one did. A unicorn lay under the willow tree, just inches away from the water. Her golden hooves shimmered with the moon, the pearly-white mane swept along her side as she moved her head a bit to get a small drink of water.

She was full grown, older than seven that is, and so she was completely and totally white, so much so that her brightness seemed to be envied by the moon. Her horn, most beautiful silver, was long and thin and made her grayish green eyes sparkle. She was like all other unicorns, pure and beautiful.

A fairly odd wolf stopped abruptly from a previous fast and joyous sprint when it spotted the unicorn. It had made a wonderful discovery on this night, as throwing its full weight against the door to a certain shack had actually caused it to open for once, and it was in a good mood, but the wolf still growled nervously at this unicorn that was in its path and approached it slowly.

The unicorn turned its head casually to look at the wolf. She didn't seem to fear the thing; instead she just looked back at the lake. She was completely calm.

This confused the wolf, which stopped growling. Instead it tried to keep its body low to the ground and quietly approach the unicorn, as if to sneak up on it.

The unicorn made a noise, like a nay, it was just very calm and musical.

The wolf sat down and barked at the unicorn to display its curiosity.

The unicorn stood up and turned around so she was facing the wolf. She lay back down and held her head up so that is was at the same height as the wolves.

The wolf sniffed the unicorn, then sat back down and barked happily.

The unicorn leaned its head in and touched her nose to his, then pulled at and made a happy noise.

The wolf ran around the unicorn a few times yipping happily in a cross-species attempt to communicate its want to play.

The unicorn seemed to laugh and stood up, happy to oblige to the Wolf's wishes, seeing as she had nothing else to do.

The wolf attempted something of a smile, and ran off into the forest.

The unicorn followed him at a trot.

* * *

**Fall, 1996**

Four days later, the day after the full moon, after all classes were over Professor Linyaari sat in Severus's office drinking a potion that would stop pain. She was in there watching Severus work, and sipping the crystal clear potion.

Severus looked up from Harry's paper on the potion that Rose was drinking. "You know, that would be just as effective if you weren't drinking it in my office. You don't really have to stick around here unless you have a reason."

"If you want me to leave I will. I just like being down here." Rose shrugged and stood up. "I'll see you later then. Thanks for the potion." She walked out the door and sat down outside of the office.

Remus walked up to her, seeming more comfortable than he had four days before then. "Ah. Finally I run into you. So, how are you feeling?"

Rose stood up and looked at Remus. "Like how I did four days ago, just with a bunch of pain in my shoulder." She shrugged. "And my head, actually."

"How'd you get injured? Wait, you probably don't know. Anyhow, I'm sorry about four days ago, but you know, before the full moon, everything's just a bit off. Now I'm fine. Especially after that pepper-upper potion, or whatever it's actually called. That and a chocolate rose, they didn't have normal chocolate bars for some reason. Not that, of course, the rose was shaped like you. That would be weird. I would never eat you. . .

"Remus, be quiet." Rose said looking at him, the affects of the full moon still on her, so of course this huge random speech that he was giving her didn't help at all. "I'll be right back." She walked into Severus's office and put the empty mug on his desk. "Thanks Severus, it has helped"

"Oh, good," Severus said absentmindedly as he laughed at some third year's essay on the ingredients for polyjuice potion (which wasn't even the assignment). "This is hilarious, but you probably wouldn't get it."

"Yeah, um, I'll be going back to my death now. Any last words you want to speak to me?" Rose asked as she walked over to the door and waited for Severus to answer.

"Yeah, what's your death?" Severus inquired.

"Remus on a Pepper-upper potion the day after the full moon." Rose laughed at how silly it sounded.

Severus snickered. "You know, you could tell him about exactly how _your _condition works. I'm sure he'd be forgiving." He kept laughing. _'And I still don't see why no one has cared to inform lover boy before now. It only causes problems. Still, I do kind of want to watch this scene. Hee, hee, Remus on a pepper-upper potion.'_

"I could tell him. . ." Rose smiled. "Why hasn't anyone told him yet, anyway? It seems liked something that people would tell, unless it's true and you all do want to torture me." She laughed. "Well back out to dancing with death."

Severus didn't hug her back. "Good luck."

Rose walked out and looked at Remus. "Hey." She sighed.

Remus smiled at her. "Wow, you're almost downright depressing. Really, you should smile a little bit more, or maybe sing. After all, the true trial of the month is over, and I miss your voice. Anyway, do you want to drop by the kitchens and eat something?"

"I'm not that hungry actually." She feigned a smile and started to walk out of the dungeons. "I was actually thinking of going back to my office to rest before classes tomorrow."

"Well, that's probably a good idea too. I'll just go find someone else to talk to for the rest of the day."

"Yeah, well then I'll talk to you later. Have a great day." Rose laughed a bit and started to walk back to her room.

Remus actually sighed as he turned away from her and headed to the great hall.

* * *

**Marauders' Fourth Year**

When the marauders entered the potions classroom, they found that one cauldron and a large batch of ingredients had been set out for every two seats. On the board there was the basic directions:

_Sleeping Draught_

_See page 62_

_You'll need all the time on this one_

There was also, oddly, a seating chart, which gave out pairings in a way that Slughorn probably felt was best to induce the fewest explosions. This required putting some of the worse with some of the best: Remus and Lily, Rose and Severus; as well as splitting up troublesome pairs: James with Alice, Sirius with Alex, Peter with Dimela and trying to still keep enemies apart: Sirius and James were at least a few tables away from any given Slytherin.

They sighed and moved to their separate places, then created paper airplanes and tossed them at each other as they waited for their partners to show up.

Dimela had groaned when she saw that she was paired with Peter and whispered to Lily before they sat down. "Neither of us can do potions, what does he expect?" Lily just laughed and sent Dimela on her way.

Rose looked at Severus and tried to keep from laughing. No one really knew that they were friends; it really was a kind of secret friendship.

Severus looked back at her and smiled.

A paper airplane signed by James and reading "Lucky!" landed on the table in front of Remus, who quickly crumpled the thing and tossed it back at James.

Lily looked at the airplane and then sighed. "Well hello, Remus." She said with a smile.

"Hello, Lily. James still likes you, of course, and will probably ask you out from a distance by the time this class is over, just as a fair warning."

"I think I'm used to it by now." Lily laughed.

Remus laughed too. "Do you ever even think about his invitations anymore?"

"Sometimes, but not really."

"Okay, so how are we supposed to be making this potion thing?"

"Open the book," Lily replied.

Remus opened the book, and it still looked like a lot of nonsense. "So, which of these is beet root, and which is mandrake root?"

Lily laughed and started to show the ingredients to Remus.

Remus listened carefully and managed to memorize a few things. "Okay, so we've got to get the water to boil."

"You can do that right?" Lily asked with a little laugh and then started to cut up the things that needed to be cut.

Remus took the jibe in stride and did manage to get the water hot enough to boil.

Rose couldn't help but giggle after a while as she worked with Severus. "For once I may actually be able to finish a potion," she said after a while.

"I certainly hope so," he replied. "Either that or you may ruin my perfect streak of completing potions." He had never had Rose reference the book, and was mostly making up the way that this potion was going on the spot, but it looked to be about the right sort of purple for this point.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm not that bad. Seriously."

"Well, of course not, but I happen to know that you think almost nothing of yourself when it comes to potions. Still, you appear to be doing fine."

"Well yeah, you're here to tell me what to do." Rose laughed.

"Well, it really isn't your fault that the book doesn't give good enough directions."

She nodded and shrugged.

Dimela wrote something on a piece of paper and sent it over to Lily. The thing read "Severus and Rose are cute. Her all innocent looking and him all dark looking."

Remus simply refused to admit to himself how much this comment made him feel hopeless.

Lily crumpled up the paper and laughed a bit, unknowing that Remus had read it.

Remus tried to ignore this. "So, what do we have to do next?"

Peter, meanwhile, had discovered that his potion had a somewhat green tinge to it. "Dimela, do you think this is right?" he asked nervously.

Dimela looked at it and rolled her eyes. "No, it's not. It's not at all right." She groaned.

Peter sighed. "What should we do?"

"Well we could start over." Dimela groaned again.

"Then we'll never finish, and I'll probably mess it up again."

"No Peter it's okay. We can start it over and you won't mess up."

Peter sighed and magicked away their current solution. It was the only thing involving potions that he'd become truly fluent at. "Okay, so we need to get water to boil and make cubes out of the mandrake roots."

"Okay, you make the water boil, I'll make the cubes. Okay?" Dimela sighed and started to cube.

* * *

**Fall, 1996**

The next day, the most wonderful of all days, Monday, Rose sat in her class room finishing up the last touches of her lesson plan and then waiting for her class to come.

A large, fluffy black dog bounded into the room, kicked the door closed, and abruptly transformed into a human. "Rose, how did Remus manage to embarrass himself yesterday? You see, he's done nothing but sit around and mourn the day ever since that potion wore off."

Rose almost fell out of her chair when the dog bounded in. She groaned and stood up. "Sirius I have a headache and I'm not in a very good mood. I am the most moody person you will every meet." She sighed. "He was just being all Peppery on the day after the full moon, my effects take longer too wear off. You know that."

Sirius shook his head. "Well, at least you two are still on speaking terms, right?"

"Sure." Rose shrugged and sat down on her desk. "I guess we are."

"Great then, I'll leave you alone, and tell him that. Try to get rid of your headache, bye." He opened the door partway, transformed into a dog, and walked out, leaving Rose at the mercy of her students.

Once Sirius had left Rose's students filed in and sat down, talking about crushes, parents, the coming year, and all of the normal studenty things. Rose had gotten off of her desk and sat back down on her chair, writing on the very bottom of the lesson plan "two more days, then talk to RL!!!" She sighed and looked up at the class. "So how was the weekend?"

* * *

AN2: Here is the place where I, the author in charge of writing author's notes, lecture you, the reader, about reviewing. I am going to take time right now to tell you how very, very important reviews are to us, the authors, and for those of you who write yourselves, you should already know all of this. Positive reviews do give us the satisfaction of knowing that we have kept someone happy, brightened up a boring day, or at least allowed slightly more happiness to pervade the general darkness of the world we live in. Constructive criticisms tell us precisely what we've done right and wrong and give us the satisfaction of knowing that someone cared enough to really sit down and analyze our story. Even negative reviews are helpful, in both that they keep us level headed and tell us where we've gone wrong.

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	5. Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

Authors' Note: We here at the Angels' Corp. apologize for making any of our fans wait so long for an update. However, we are proud to announce that this chapter arrives with many wonderful, entertaining scenes for your amusement and ends the rather distinct writing that has characterized the present scenes before now, replacing them with newer, well-written present scenes.

* * *

Marauders' Fourth Year

Professor Gerald set a pack of cards at each of the twelve two person tables in the divination room as the students took their seats. When the marauders entered the classroom he sighed and braced himself for another long and rambunctious class with the school's ultimate chaos bringers. He stood back behind his own desk and rang a conveniently placed bell to get silence. "Today we will ask the oracles for the initials of the one you are going to marry. The cards in front of you are specially made for this purpose, and have letters on them. The directions are on page 63 of your textbook. As always, I would like to encourage you to focus. Good luck."

Dimela and Rose sat together and looked down at the cards, Dimela with excitement and Rose with cynicism. "I bet I'll be marrying some one famous, like Paul McCartney or Bertie Bott or Devlin Whitehorn." She grinned. "Rich and famous."

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You probably won't ever get married."

James expertly shuffled the deck and distributed the cards according to complex diagrams. "You know, I don't know why I'm even doing this, I already know who I'm going to marry." He flipped over two of the cards. "L.E. Looks like this works."

"Hey look, I got J.P.!" One of the Hufflepuff girls yelled out, specifically Linda Eder.

Peter held back a laugh. "I'll probably never get married." He whined.

Sirius collected James's cards and reshuffled them. "I agree with you, Peter, marriage isn't the best way to express your love. Plus there's so many girls out there, and I'd rather just have a chance to see them all." He laid out the cards. "Alright, let's see the initials of someone really famous and beautiful." He flipped two. "Well, that's interesting."

Dimela had finished putting out the cards and turned two over. "Steven Berkoff? Or maybe Stubby Boardman."

"Or maybe **S**irius **B**lack," Rose said, picking up the cards and starting to shuffle them.

Dimela looked behind her at Sirius and just sat there looking him over and sizing him up.

Sirius looked back at Dimela winked, waved, and held up the D and L cards.

"Nah, it couldn't be him." She said, turning back around and watching Rose.

The marauders stared at Peter's blank cards and shrugged. "Don't worry, divination is an insecure subject by its nature," Remus tried to reassure him.

Peter pouted and handed the cards over to Remus.

Rose put down the cards and flipped them over. Dimela smiled, "Well that's not too hard, there aren't too many people with those initials, just Ronald Lipson, Reggie Lepperman, Remus Lupin, Robert Lycon, Rose Linyaari, Roberta Leggings, Rebecca Lies . . ." She paused and shrugged. "I guess there are a lot of people with those initials, just in this school too."

Sirius smiled at Remus's cards. "Oh, Remus, you're a narcissist. I'm so proud."

James smirked. "Or he might be gay, I bet it's Robert Lycon."

Remus laughed and watched his friends skirt around the name Rose Linyaari.

Ronald Lipson raised his hand. "Um, Professor, I got RL, does that mean I'm going to marry myself?"

"I got RL too!" Roberta Leggings yelled out.

"Us too!" Robert Lycon and Rebecca Lies said.

Professor Gerald sighed. "Who all got RL?" He counted quickly the six RLs who raised their hands. "See, you have plenty of selection amongst yourselves. If you want you can try to figure out who will be the other parent of your children using the directions on page 252."

Sirius collected the cards. "This should be fun." He opened the book to the correct page and began carefully following the directions there. Eventually he flipped over two cards. "What he hell is that supposed to mean?"

Peter looked down at the squiggles on the cards and shrugged. "Maybe it means that your wife doesn't know who the father of the child is?"

Sirius turned around and looked at Dimela. "Dimela, you're such a slut," he said jokingly with no explanation.

Dimela ignored her cards for a moment turned around to Sirius. "I'm not a slut!" She yelled, throwing a pencil at him and then turning back to her cards. "Professor! I keep coming up with two pairs of initials."

"See!" Sirius yelled at her, dodging the pencil.

Professor Gerald sighed again. "What are the initials?"

"S.B. and L.M."

"Maybe you have children with different people."

"Stubby Boardman and Lucius Malfoy." Dimela thought about it and shrugged. "I like that."

"Or maybe **S**irius **B**lack and Lucius Malfoy." Rose repeated, taking the cards from her and staring down at them.

Remus took his deck flipped over two cards to find them blank, and handed the whole piled over to Peter. "That's just typical," he commented.

"Rose, you should do it, you never know what could happen." Dimela encouraged.

Rose sighed and shuffled the cards, then put them down on the table and turned over two of them, "W.G."

"Rose, you're a slut." Dimela laughed and hugged her friend. "Having a kid that's not your husbands."

James laughed. "Well, Remus, I believe that explains your blank cards. Now, let's see," he turned over L.P. "Awh, that's so cute. Look, I marry the girl beforehand and everything."

Sirius laughed. "Oh James, you're just so responsible. Wow, that's quite the little oxymoron."

"Or it could be Leah Pem." Peter said, flipping over two blank cards. He sighed.

Remus smiled. "Well, I guess we'll just have to be the childless people in this group."

Rose looked at Dimela and pouted. "I can't have any kids, though."

Dimela shrugged. "It's a miracle."

"Why can't Rose have kids?" Peter whispered to his friends.

Sirius shrugged. "The cards say she can. Maybe her parents would just kill her or something."

"That's sad."

"Maybe you'll have a stillborn or something," Dimela concluded. "See, it all works out to the law of physics or whatever it is."

"That's cheerful." Rose rolled her eyes and lay her head on the table.

* * *

Fall 1996

Tuesday and Wednesday went by in no time. Just the normal routine for every one as they got up and went to class. Rose had stayed in her office for most of that time, only leaving at night or in the early morning to go out for a little walk around the grounds, just to clear her mind and to get some fresh air. When Thursday came it was the same old thing. Get up, get dressed, walk to class, teach the class, dismiss the class, and wait for the next class. Rose only had two class periods that day and so after the last one she trudged down to the dungeons and snuck into Severus' office, then waited there for him to come.

She closed her eyes, memories flooding back. _'I wish I could just fly away. Over the rainbow.' _She thought, letting the memories sweep over her as she slowly dozed off.

Severus walked into his office tiredly, ready to relax after a double potions period with Neville Longbottom. The place had almost gotten poisonous babbling brew on it at least four individual times. Therefore it took him about half a minute to realize that an old friend was sleeping there. "Hello, Rose," he greeted her quietly, trying to carefully shake her shoulder.

Rose slowly opened her eyes and looked at Severus, for a moment seeing the boy she had first seen so many years ago. After a minute she actually came back to reality and sat up. "Hello, Severus." She greeted back. "Am I intruding? You look tired. I'll leave if you would like."

"No. It's all right, although I must say that you actually look more tired than I feel. Are you sure that you don't want to go and sleep for your own sake?"

"Oh no, I'm fine, completely and totally fine. Just a little exhausted, that's all." She shrugged. "It's been a busy few days." A sigh. "I can't believe it's only been a few days since I first saw you again. It seems like years."

"Well, we simply are not aging that quickly. Any particular reason why you decided to come down here?"

"Because I always feel better after talking to you actually. I will leave if you want. I should probably talk to Professor Lupin at some point here."

"Ah. It's lupinephobia. Got it. Yes, you probably should talk to him at some point and sort out the eons of tension there, but you are free to hide here for as long as you feel is necessary."

Rose laughed. "Lupinephobia? I've never heard of it. Thank you Severus, I'm glad I have you here." She sat up and pulled her knee's up to her chest, hugging them. "How were your classes?"

"Fairly exciting, in a dangerous way. The whole class could have landed in the hospital wing several times over the course of the day. And yours?"

"Fairly dull in a dangerous way. I think I was almost so bored they might have had to send me to the hospital wing, but oh well." She shrugged.

"How disappointing, one less excuse to not talk to Lupin. Well, I suppose you shall have to deal with the consequences of teaching the only math based course in a school of witchcraft and wizardry. What made you choose that job anyway?"

"I was always the best at Arithmancy." She shrugged again. "You know, I can't decide whether you want me to talk to Lupin or you don't."

"Makes sense, due to the fact that I can't decide either. Yes, you were always superior at Arithmancy, you even got to the advance point whereby you could make three halves into a whole."

"Yes, it was very amusing that year." Rose laughed. "So which one do you think that you'd rather me do. Talk to Lupin or ignore him for the rest of my life?"

"Well, as much as it's nice to have you here talking to me, I believe that none of the inhabitants of the castle would be happy if the two of you continued to mope around for the rest of your very long lives." He considered this for a moment. "Actually, your lives might be shortened quite a bit by frustrated castle residents."

"Or the war." She sighed. "Love, It's the slowest form of suicide." Rose stood up and looked at Severus with a smile. "Thank you. I'll talk to you later than. I may be at dinner tonight."

'_A perfectly good conversation and she turns it morbid.'_ Severus sighed quietly. "Yes, of course, I'll see you soon. Good luck, 'Corna."

"Yes, thank you, Sev." She laughed and left the room, trudging up to Remus's office. She had been there a million times, mostly from the school years, but still this time as she headed up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom the staircases and her feet seemed to be working against her. She moved slower then she meant to and so the stairs moved before she could get off. Finally, after what seemed hours, Rose got to the classroom and walked in. A little smile coming to her lips as she remembered all the many times she had walked into that classroom to see the Marauders huddled in a corner whispering and plotting.

Remus heard footsteps in his classroom, he cursed his sensitive ears for ruining his reading, and he carefully set down a collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov before heading down the stairs leading to the classroom. "Rose?"

Rose jumped and looked at Remus, tired of being lost in memories. "Remus, How are you?" She asked with a smile, walking farther into the room.

"I'm okay, really. I'm sorry for bugging you a few days ago, you were clearly not in the mood to be around that much energy, I should have left you alone."

"Oh no, it's perfectly fine. I just wasn't feeling too well. I'm sorry for being a bit snappy at you." It seemed that every time that Rose and Remus talked the beginning part of their conversation was just them saying sorry and apologizing for the most random things that no one else would have cared about. They were similar in that way, that they thought that every thing that they did would need apologizing for and everything they did they had to think extensively about before they actually did it, that was unless it was around the full moon, then things were completely different.

"It's fine. So, did you just come up here to chat?" Remus sounded more hopeful than he would have chosen to admit as he asked the question. He really wanted to talk to her for a while, and hoped she wouldn't make up some other excuse and leave again. He wasn't quite willing to admit that somewhat more than talking would also be favorable. . .

"Yeah well I haven't seen you in 16 years, save the last few times we've randomly bumped into each other in the past few days." Her voice quivered a bit and she again silently cursed. _'Come on Rose, get a hold of yourself, he's just a guy . . . . He's just a guy. Breath, in and out, in and out' _Rose thought, keeping her self steady by leaning again a desk very casually.

"Yes, well, that isn't really an answer." He counted carefully, his heart was beating exactly nine extra time per minute. And he could smell her shampoo, mmm, strawberries.

Rose laughed nervously. "Yes I came up here to chat. Can we, um, sit somewhere? Maybe away from the cold and musky classroom." _'and maybe before I faint' _She took a deep breath, trying to stay calm and not turn to jell-o under his eyes.

"Of course," he said, he turned away and felt an extra two beats per minute add on. His conscience cursed him and said there was something very wrong with leading her up to his rooms, but reason told him that it didn't really matter and it was warmer there. He walked back up the stairs either way.

She followed like a loyal dog, trying her best not to trip and fall, or do anything else equally embarrassing. Once the two got to the office Rose sat down on the couch, welcoming the seat and the warmer climate. She looked up at Remus and smiled. "Thank you."

Padfoot, who had previously been curled up and asleep in a corner near the fireplace, perked up slightly at the sound of a female voice, then he decided that he already had the best vantage point to observe the couple, and settled down to look asleep again.

Remus sat in a chair next to the couch. "Your welcome, it's really no problem. Have you been teaching here all year?"

Rose nodded. "Well, seeing as it is only one month into the school year, it's not that much of a year yet. But I started at the beginning of this year, yes."

"Well, you do have a point there. Do you have any plans for Halloween yet?"

"Not really. Nick invited me to the death day party but I still don't know if I want to do that." She shrugged. "Do you?"

"Want to go to a death day party? Well, it does sound dreary and I hear the food is unpleasant. However, if you are willing to go, I would gladly join you."

Rose's heart sped up when he said that and she had too look down away from him to keep from blushing. She felt like a love sick school girl all over again. "Well did you have any other plans for all hallows eve?"

'_This is not a date.'_ Remus silently reminded himself, trying to calm down. "No, not yet anyway."

"Well then . . ." Rose laughed a bit and looked up at Remus. "Remember the Masquerade we had in our sixth year for Halloween? We went together as The Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood." She laughed again. "I have no clue why I just remembered that, but . . .well . . ." She shrugged.

"Are you suggesting we should coordinate what we wear to the party? What would we be, Westley and Princess Buttercup?"

Rose laughed. "I wasn't suggesting anything like that, actually. I was just commenting upon it. But . . . Westly and Princess Buttercup, why them?"

As far as Remus could tell, the dog was mumbling something like "twue wuv," but he decided to ignore it. "Came to mind." He tried to shrug it off nonchalantly.

Rose nodded. "Well I would love to go to the Death Day Party with you as long as you are willing to ditch it with me so we may get some real food. And we don't have to coordinate costumes."

"Sounds good, now I'll just have to alert the house elves that well be sneaking out at about 8:00 on Halloween to get food. Do you have anything in particular that you would like to eat?"

"I'm fine with what ever. So, it's a date," she said, the date part slipping out before she could stop herself. It wasn't really a date, just two friends ditching some ghosts, she tried to reason with her self as her heart skipped a beat or two.

The word "date" was doomed to spend the rest of the day ringing through Remus's mind. He attempted to momentarily distract himself by coming up with another thing to talk about. "We've been having pleasant weather recently." He failed.

"Yes, it's been just wonderful this past month. Quite surprising actually, since it's mid-October. The mornings are especially pleasant, too." Rose replied all in good nature.

"Probably just global warming. Um, so, have you read anything interesting recently?"

Rose shrugged, "I just finished reading _Pride and Prejudice_ once again." She said, this part of the conversation being most important to getting the awkwardness away, and yet it seemed to just make the awkwardness even more prominent.

Remus filed Mr. Darcy away under costume ideas. "A good book, but I think you've read it far too often."

"Only because it's an amazing book, with amazing characters, and, well it's just amazing. Have you read any good books in the last few, um, years, I guess."

"You mean decade and a half? Yes, I bound to find at least a couple of good books in that time. Have you read any of the _Discworld_ books?"

"No. I think I've heard of them though." She replied, with a little laugh. "How do we always seem to end up talking about books?"

"It's one of the better things we have in common. Would you prefer to discuss your disposition against the full moon?"

"One of the worst things we have in common." She grimaced. "Well I do like the talk about books, but I'm certain we're truly boring our eavesdropper."

"All the better to rid ourselves of nosy dogs, my dear."

"Well, in that case. Have you read _Les Miserables_ yet? Since the first time I told you that you should read it, that was, what in our 6th year?"

"Yes, you should be proud, I only fell asleep about eight times. Nice, classical story, far too many pages."

"I'm very proud. You actually counted, amazing. It does have far too many pages. And the whole beginning of that books seems completely pointless, seeing as the character there only comes in once or twice through out the whole story."

"It's true, you know when your main character doesn't show up until page 100, you have a very long introduction on your hands. It's still not quite as bad as _Hawaii_, that spends a couple hundred pages just talking about how the earth came into being."

"Also I read a book once where for the first few chapters there's a character that you get very attached too, and then all of a sudden he's brutally murdered and another character comes in that then, in a few more chapters, finally introduces you to the main main character. I have completely forgotten the title of that book."

"Okay, so we've proven that we've both read annoying books. Are you hungry?"

"I actually kind of am."

"I actually kind of am amazed. Let's go get some dinner.'

Rose nodded and stood up, leading the way out of Remus's office and then out of the class room. "It's not that amazing that I'm kind of hungry, I am only human."

"I'm not going to comment on that one, past saying that you're wrong."

Rose rolled her eyes and continued to walk. "Okay, well I am human, lose the only." She sighed and stopped in front of the great hall doors.

Remus smirked happily. "So, why have you stopped walking?"

"Aren't you a gentlemen and supposed to open the door for me?" Rose teased. "I am regaining my posture for the students and all that type of thing."

Remus stood up a little straighter for the sake of it. "There, now I am in teacher posture." He opened the door and gestured to the inside. "My lady?"

Rose laughed. "You mocked me!" She whispered to him in mock surprise, then walked into the great hall, She followed up to the teachers table and sat down in her regular seat between Severus and Dumbledore.

Remus begrudgingly walked to his own seat and took his place. Then he had second thoughts. He carefully picked up a grape and catapulted it to Rose using his spoon.

Rose held back a squeak as the grape hit her nose and then fell down her robe. She looked over at Remus with a little glare. She picked up a little sausage link and tossed it over at Remus as if it were a throwing knife.

The sausage hit Remus square in the chest, and he quickly improvised a fake death.

Severus carefully pushed his chair farther away from the table and walked away with the excuse that he had to prevent the students from starting their own food fight.

Rose giggled a bit childishly and looked down at her food plate, picking up a strawberry and actually eating it, but while she nibbled on the berry she put some mashed potatoes on her spoon as ammo and aimed it at Remus, as a threat.

Remus rolled up part of his napkin and waved it at her to imitate a white flag.

"Coward." Rose joked, putting the spoon of potatoes into her mouth and eating her ammo.

Remus giggled madly to himself as he tossed a handful of French fries at her.

Rose squeaked this time as the French fries hit her hair and rolled to the ground. She looked at Remus with a little pout and big innocent eyes. "What did I ever do to you?" She asked sweetly.

"Well, you kind of abandoned me sixteen years ago, but mostly you just sat so far away. I had to wage war."

"Well that's just not fair. I didn't mean to sit so far away from you, but as you can see there aren't any seats closer to you then the one that I'm in now."

"More war then, next time us against the table. We shall have to fight for the right to have seats next to each other."

Rose giggled again and popped a grape into her mouth then stood up. "You sound like The Phantom of the Opera. 'There will be war between you both'!" She Held her hand up in a fist for effect and had lowered her voice. Rose giggled at herself and the grape that Remus had first thrown rolled onto the ground. "Let us make war in the morning. Tonight, I bid you adieu. Good night." She smiled and walked out of the great hall, heading down to Severus's office.

* * *

Marauders' Fourth year

Rose walked down the stairs into the common room and looked out into the dim fire lit room. It had become a habit for Rose to go down to the common room every night that she couldn't sleep. And every night that she went down she hoped that Remus would be there to join her. Of course that made Rose's sleepless nights frequent in hopes that she wouldn't miss a night with Remus.

The common room was empty at that point at the night so Rose just sat down on the chair beside the fire and flipped open her book.

Remus, who had been awake for the last ten minutes, heard Rose's footsteps over Sirius's snoring, and happily crept to the bottom of the stairs to see what Rose was doing.

Rose heard the creaking steps of the boys' dorm and she grinned, coving the smile with her book and she looked down and stared determinedly at the words in front of her, although the words weren't really meaning any thing now.

Remus looked at the book, decided that Rose didn't look too preoccupied, and walked up behind her with every intention of reading over her shoulder until she decided to speak to him.

"Hello Remus." Rose put down the book and looked up at Remus. She grinned even more and turned around in the chair to see Remus. "How are you?"

"I'm okay, unable to sleep, but otherwise all right." Remus smiled back.

"That's good." She turned back around to sit normally in the chair and waited for Remus to sit down on the couch so she could actually look at him while sitting on the chair normally.

Remus plopped down on the couch at looked back at her. "So, what brings you out here tonight?"

"I couldn't sleep." She shrugged.

"Well, at least it wasn't a nightmare."

"I've been having a lot of those lately." She laughed.

"I have too," he said grimmly.

"And what do you think they mean?"

"I think they mean that I dread ripping people to shreds."

Rose crossed her legs and looked at the fire. "Why would you fear that? You're not the type of guy that strikes me as ripping people to shreds."

"I'm glad to hear that, but I think there's more truth to it then you think there is."

Rose looked Remus over and then shook her head. "I don't see it. Unless you're one of those serial killers who look all innocent but you're really evil."

"Wolf in sheep's clothing," Remus muttered, inspecting a scar on the back of his left hand.

"So are you a serial killer?" She laughed.

Remus managed to laugh too. "No, not as far as I know."

"Well then what ever that makes you a wolf in sheep's clothing can't be too bad." She smiled and looked back at Remus. "Anywho, people like wolves and sheep, so I suppose that just makes you very lovable."

Remus looked at her hopefully. "Really, you like wolves?"

"I love wolves. My mother, she took care of a baby wolf that had been abandoned when I was little." She smiled. "My mom runs a shelter for animals, magical and not. So I guess I've grown up with a lot of animals, but that wolf was my favorite."

Remus practically beamed. "What other kinds of animals did you have there?"

"Foxes, Llamas, unicorns, we have had a few dragons that were sick or hurt but all of those haven't been able to stick around for too long. Um, we've also had Lynx's, and phoenixes, acromantulas, Lethifold, Nymphs." She shrugged. "Oh we've had so many. We've also have had some half-breeds."

"What kinds of half breeds?"

"I don't know. Like werewolves and such."

"That was must be interesting to live around."

"It's fun," she shrugged. "Keeps me interested in the summers. So what about you?"

"My dad's a banker and we have a house that's pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It isn't that interesting."

"Why do you live in the middle of no where?"

"My mother feels more secure when there aren't too many people nearby."

Dimela opened her eyes and looked at Rose's empty bed. She sighed and tiptoed out of her bed and over to Lily. "Lily, wake up!"

Lily groaned and threw a pillow at Dimela's head.

"Rose is downstairs snogging with James."

Lily shot up into a sitting position. "Eww, horrible mental images."

"Well, it's not really happening, but she is talking to Remus."

Lily sighed. "Are we going to spy on them?"

"No, we just got up to sit here and think about it." She said sarcastically.

"Speak for yourself, I got up to avoid having nightmares of James snogging with poor, innocent Rose."

"How about we go downstairs and watch, please?"

Lily climbed out of bed and led the way silently down the stairs.

Dimela followed her and finally just sat down on one of the stairs where they had a good view of Remus and Rose both talking on the couch. "They're so cute." Dimela whispered.

Sirius jumped on James's bed. "James, get up, you petrified tree."

"No. Go away." James hit Sirius's arm and rolled over on his bed, covering his head with his pillow.

"Well, that's okay, I can allow Lily and Snape to keep going if you don't want to stop them. I just wanted to warn you that he's kissing her and she's running her hands through his greasy black hair, and somehow they've even avoided touching noses. They appear to be enjoying themselves. Do you want me to keep describing this or do you want to get up?"

James shot up and managed to accidentally punch Sirius in the stomach. "I have to go save her!" He jumped out of bed and made Peter shoot up from bed and looked around.

"Remus might actually kiss Rose," Sirius informed Peter, recovering from the punch quickly. "I recommend going downstairs soon."

James glared at Sirius and then headed quietly down the stairs and soon sat down on a step where he could see Remus and Rose, Peter sat next to him.

"Aren't they adorable?" Sirius asked, sitting down next to them.

Rose sighed and picked back up her book. "So what's new?"

"Nothing's new." Remus replied.

"Well anything old that I don't know about yet?"

"Yes," Remus replied, but he was unable to make up his mind on whether to go on. He waited for a few moments before adding. "Yes, there's something that I should tell you."

Rose looked at Remus will full seriousness and waited for him to continue.

"He's going to tell her that he loves her!" Dimela whispered excitedly.

"He's going to tell her!" James whispered, scared. "We should stop him."

Sirius attempted to giggle under his breath. "She'll accept him, oh, this is just too fun."

Remus ran a hand through his hair. "Problem is, I don't know where to begin."

"Start from the very beginning?" She suggested then laughed. "Or just blurt it out."

"I, well, I, you know how I was, er, sick about a week ago."

"I suppose, yeah."

"Well, it was the full moon."

"Yeah, I know."

"You do?"

"Yes."

"Most people don't keep track of that kind of thing."

"Well I'm one of those few people that do. Apparently you do too."

"Yes and with good reason too, it is related to the point I was trying to make."

"You get sick on the full moons? I do too, a lot of the time."

"Yeah, well, not really sick, per se, but I do tend to miss a lot of school around that time."

"Okay." Rose looked at Remus and tried to read him.

"I can see what's happening." James sighed.

"What?" Peter asked, confused.

"And they don't have a clue." Sirius continued.

"Who?" Peter whined.

"They'll fall in love," James pouted.

"And here's the bottom line, are quartet's down to three," Sirius added nostalgically.

"Oh," Peter said, feeling much better now that he knew what was going on.

"The sweet caress of moonlight, there's magic every where. And with all this romantic atmosphere, disaster's in the air!" James shook his head.

"I'm really glad that wolves are your favorite animal," Remus said, seemingly out of the blue.

"Well I'm glad that you approve of my favorite animal." Rose smiled and put back down her book.

"Can you feel the love tonight?" Dimela asked in a sing song voice.

Lily sighed. "It's a very cute and peaceful evening."

"For once it seems like everything's in perfect harmony."

Remus sighed loudly. _'God, there's so much to tell her. But how to make her see? I can't just strait out tell her or she'd turn away, and that's just if I'm lucky.'_

Rose crossed her legs and turned fully facing Remus, trying to read him. _'He's holding back, hiding. What I can't decide, why won't he be the man I know he is? The man see inside?' _She sighed and put her hand on Remus's shoulder. "You don't have to tell me, you know that right? If you're not comfortable, that's okay."

"They're so uncertain," Dimela sighed lovingly.

"There's so much sighing." Lily sighed sarcastically. "Love is where they are, though."

"And if he falls in love tonight." James sniffed, "it can be assumed,"

"His every days with us are history." Sirius frowned.

"In short,"

"Our pal is doomed," Both Sirius and James said in unison as they silently started to 'cry'.

Peter laughed and ushered his friends away from the bottom of the stairs.

"Well, of course I'm not comfortable with telling you. It's my deepest, riskiest secret, it's not easy to tell you. And yet I'm tired of lying. Plus you really should know. . ." Remus continued to bumble on in an attempt to build his confidence enough to actually tell her, but it wasn't a fast process.

Rose sighed and leaned back. "Last summer a werewolf came to our shelter. He was injured or something and so mom tried to help him out. His name was Greyback," She paused and looked over the fire. "He almost killed my mother." She smiled, _'although he was an interesting character.' _She thought to herself.

Remus looked at her with interest and embarrassment. "Greyback almost killed your mother?"

"Yep. It was an . . . interesting experience. Mother was trying to fix his wounds and I was in the room binding a few wounds of my own. Then all of a sudden Greyback jumped up and attacked my mom, almost scratched out her throat, then went after me. Apparently I scream too loudly, well and I was apparently too 'innocent' for him to hurt." She laughed.

"That's odd." Remus smiled. "Well, at least you managed to save your mother."

"Oh no, I didn't. That was the woodsman." She grinned.

"Did you at least learn something from the whole experience? Nice is different than good, et cetera?"

"Well I suppose Mr. Greyback was very nice, although so is John." She shrugged. "I learned that Werewolves are quite interesting people."

"Who may bite your head off."

"Not mine." She yawned. "I'm getting rather tired."

"Then we can just go back to our beds."

Rose smiled. "Good night, Remus." She stood up and debated whether to hug him or not, in the end she didn't and just went up to bed, or to Lily and Dimela sitting on her bed waiting for her.


	6. Wherein Rose Was Cursed By James

AN: Well yet another chapter and please don't you all come rushing to review at one time. But seriously, reviews are nice. So if you read, review, please, just to say "hey I read" We love all of our readers all the same, though. Now read and enjoy.

* * *

**Fall 1996**

Severus separated the third year essays by house and then attempted to shuffle them like cards. It worked well enough, but he really didn't feel like grading them at the moment. Pushing the essays into a corner of his desk, Severus leaned back and tried to relax. He assured himself that it was a good thing that Remus and Rose could talk freely again, and tried to remember how annoying the two could be when separated. He sighed loudly.

There was a timid knock on the door.

"Come in," Severus greeted the knock with fake displeasure. He was truly somewhat relieved that someone had come and could interrupt his thought process.

Rose walked in and closed the door behind her. "Are you okay?" She asked right away, walking over to Severus and putting her hand on his shoulder. "You look depressed, and you feel tense."

"And this isn't just a constant status for me?" he asked with mild surprise.

Rose shrugged and walked behind him, starting to give him a little back massage, kneading her fingers ever so gently through the knots in his back. "Well, sure, but still . . ." She replied after a moment. Trying ever so gently to get through the barriers in his mind, just like a mind massage.

Severus relaxed somewhat in response to the massage, but had to fight an urge to keep her out of his head. He just tried to wait and see if she could get through his normal barriers.

Rose sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Something's wrong." She whispered, letting herself drift out of his mind.

"Yes, that would be an obvious source of tension and depression. You're feeling lazy today."

"Tell me what's wrong." She said gently and hopefully, draping her arms around him.

"At this moment, nothing is wrong."

Rose smiled and kissed his cheek. "Then stop looking so sad. It makes me sad."

Severus smiled. "Well, we can't possibly be having you be sad. That is a sure sign of the immediate end of worldwide happiness."

"You make it sound like I'm always happy." Rose laughed and sung very quietly, "Happiness is what happens when all your dreams come true."

"Well, you are traditionally very happen. With the notable exception of the week surrounding the full moon."

"Well what about you? You're never happy Sev," she said in a bit of a whinny tone. "What are your dreams that have yet to come true?"

"Oh, most of my dreams have yet to come true. However, your return into my life should be a definite positive thing." He mentally added, _'except that I'm losing you to Remus just as quickly.'_

"Well I'm glad I'm a positive in your life." She smiled and looked at the time. "Would you like to walk me back to my office, or do I have to walk all alone?"

"I'll gladly walk with you," he replied. He stood and led the way out.

Rose followed him, just keeping right at his heel and a little to the right. "What are you doing for Halloween?" She asked curiously.

"I have not definite plans so far. Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious, that's all."

"Oh, well, if that's it, I'm still left planless."

"Go to the death day party, dress up as some one completely random that no one will recognize and then go. I'll be there for a little while."

"Then I promise you that I will be there as well. We appear to be nearing your office."

Rose smiled and opened the door to her office once they finally got there. "Would you like to come in, or just go back to your office?"

"I will gladly come in for a little while, but I was almost positive that the point of taking you here was to part ways once again."

"But I don't want to part ways." She pulled him into her office and shut the door, sitting down on her big comfy couch. "I like talking to you."

He sat down next to her. "I enjoy talking to you as well. So, why did you want to return to your quarters anyway?"

"I've got a comfy couch and I'm quite tired." Rose shrugged and laid her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes for a moment and then opening them again.

"In that case it all makes sense again. Out of curiosity, have you actually seen Dimela recently?"

"Yeah. I write her all the time, and I saw her the week before I came here." She nodded a bit and closed her eyes. "Why?"

"I feel that we're bound to be hearing more about her soon. Have you told Sirius about her occupation yet?"

"He hasn't asked about her yet." Rose's voice was getting quieter and quieter as she slowly dozed off on Severus's shoulder.

"Good, video tape it for me." He attempted to look down at her. "Rose, are you still awake?"

Rose nodded very weakly and muttered a little, "yeah . . ." letting the word just trail off.

Severus tried to make himself somewhat more comfortable if he was going to be stuck with her head on his shoulder until she was at least somewhat more deeply asleep.

Rose had eventually fallen asleep, into a nice and solid sleep that she hadn't had for a few years.

Severus carefully removed himself from acting as her pillow. He stood up and looked at her for a little while, deciding what to do. Eventually he decided that even that couch wouldn't be pleasant to sleep on for extended periods of time, so he carefully picked her up and brought her to her bedroom. He set her down on the bed and moved a blanket over her. Then he stood back and gazed at her for a moment more before smiling and leaving to return to the dungeons.

* * *

**The Marauder's Fourth Year**

The fourth year Marauders walked into the library with every intention to actually study for a potions test coming un the next week. A test that Slughorn had said was "horridly hard and only about four of them would pass it". This made the marauders actually want to study.

Remus was the first one to pick up on the sound of Rose laughing. "Rose is here."

Sirius smiled. "James, shall we visit Lily?"

James looked at Sirius as if he had grown horns. "Duh." He said, leaning the way over to where Rose and Lily mostly sat. Once they got there the Marauders saw Rose sitting at the table, a pile of books in front of her, but instead of Lily sitting in the seat, it was Severus Snape, leaning over and showing Rose some thing in the book that was open in front of her and he was explaining something.

Remus frowned. "Okay, Lily's not here, let's go study."

Sirius stood his ground. "I think we need to show them that we won't allow this sort of thing to happen."

"He probably gave her a love potion. That's the only way a Gryffindor like Rose would hang out with a Slytherin like him. So we should correct this injustice." He agreed.

"Well, Remus do you want to cast the first curse?"

Remus shook his head. "Shouldn't we at least get Rose out of the way first?"

"She'll be fine, don't worry Lover boy." James said, teasingly.

Remus ignored this and stepped aside for the time.

James pulled out his wand and looked at Sirius. "Ready?"

Sirius pulled out his wand. "I'm always ready."

Both of the boys muttered a curse, and both of them hit Severus straight on, making Severus fall back, which made Rose fall out of her chair.

Severus managed to get up fairly quickly. "Petrificus totalus," he cast in the general direction of the marauders.

James was already ready and dodged the spell then sprouted one of at Severus, although this time he missed and hit Rose instead, sending her flying into one of the book cases and then crumpling to the ground.

Remus ran over to Rose to see if she was okay as another series of spells was launched across the aisle.

Rose was struggling to get to her feet, yet wasn't doing a very good job. She sighed and settled back down and stared out at the fight going on. "STOP IT!" She yelled after a moment. "If you boys are going to fight then take it outside and make sure that I'm out of the way!"

"Are you okay?" Remus asked Rose. Severus, meanwhile, attempted to lead the remaining marauders in the general direction of the door.

"I can't move." She replied, looking up at Remus. "Do you guys always have to fight him every time you see him?"

"Yes, I think so."

"That's stupid, we were minding our own business, just studying for a test," she complained.

"We were actually going to study for a test. Now I'm going to fail potions."

"Me too, you guys are going to hex my study partner to the next millennia."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Rose looked up at him. "Will you help me out to the Hospital wing?"

"Sure," Remus held out a hand.

Rose pulled herself up with his hand, and then leaned against Remus to help herself work. "Next time tell your friends to get me out of the way before they decide to curse Severus."

"I actually did."

Rose looked at Remus and pouted. "And what, they decided that they wanted to hex me too?"

"They said that you'd be fine."

"Liars, they are."

"Yep."

She laughed and watched as Remus and her passed by where Sirius and James and Severus were fighting.

"They'll all wind up with detention."

"They all deserve it. It's just childish and stupid."

"It's just the way they are."

"I've noticed. You're the only one that's actually decent in the group. So why are you friends with them anyway?"

"They're good friends. They're just horrible enemies."

"And their decent if you're best friends with one of the girls that they love."

"Yes, except that they feel the need to protect you from the evil that is studying."

"All I wanted to do was pass that Potions test. Now it's all doomed. Now I'm going to be stuck in the Hospital Wing for a few days."

"You only got hit with one curse. It will probably only take Madam Pomfrey a couple of hours to get you back out of there."

"I just feel like being dramatic at the moment," she sighed and lay her head on his shoulder. "Thank you Remus, this is very nice of you."

"If you want, we could even try to study together, but it would be a case of the blind leading the blind."

"We should at least try. Severus taught me something that I could probably use, hopefully." She stopped walking as they entered the Hospital Wing and Madame Pomfrey came out of her office to see the two half-breeds walking together.

"What's wrong?" She asked, taking Rose from Remus and putting her into one of the beds.

"She got cursed by James."

Poppy nodded and walked into her back room, coming out with a potion. "This will take a while so I would like it if you spend the night with me tonight, Rose. Master Lupin you may leave if you want, I'm going to stick Rose to bed, although it doesn't seem like she can walk much anyway."

Remus looked at Rose. "Should I go grab your stuff from the library?"

"That would be very nice, thank you Remus." Rose smiled kindly at him.

Once Remus was out of the room, Poppy looked down at Rose and sighed. "Take a sip of this potion, just make sure you don't take too much, I don't want to waste this all on you since you won't be using it anyway."

Rose nodded and took a sip of the potion, then handed it back to Poppy. "Thank you."

"Of course." Madame Pomfrey walked back into her office.

* * *

**Fall 1996**

It was a week before Halloween and all the students were giddy with excitement. While the teachers on the other hand weren't as giddy, more nervous. The full moon was scheduled for the day after Halloween.

Rose woke up on the Saturday and had drearily gotten out of bed and sat down at her desk, writing a quick and scribbled note to her friend, which simply read, "I have no clue what I'm going to wear for Halloween. Find some time in your busy schedule to write me and tell me!!" And then Rose sent her owl out with the letter and she herself got dressed in her robes, and a long cloak, scarf, and everything and went out side of the castle into the freezing cold October weather.

Padfoot, who had been occupied with barking at a squirrel, ran over to her happily. He checked that there was no one around and then transformed into a human. "So, are you ready for your big date with Remus a week from now?" he asked jokingly.

"My big date? Well then I probably shouldn't have invited Severus. . ." She replied, joking right back at him and then becoming serious. "And it's not a date, just two professors going to a Halloween party together." She said, crossing her arms and giving Sirius a stern look that was very hard to keep serious.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Sure. So, are you ready for your big 'party' that's happening a week from now?" he asked, making air quotes while he said the word "party".

"Kind of. . . I guess." Rose shrugged. "I still don't have a costume."

"You may be interested to know that Remus doesn't either. The only reason that I'm even out here in the first place is that he was boring me to death by obsessing over his future costume."

Rose laughed. "Well I won't bore you with that then."

"Good." Having reached the end of the that line of conversation, Sirius frowned. "Rose, do you know where Dimela is?"

Rose blinked at Sirius a bit and was silent, trying to think of what to say to that, finally she found it. "After every thing you two have been through you still want to see her? You'd think you were in love or something . . ."

"I have strongly considered the possibility."

Rose smiled a bit. "You? In love? Now that's funny, although surprisingly cute."

Sirius shook his head. "Where is she, Rose?"

"She's in London." Rose replied.

Sirius nodded. "That makes sense. Still, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Why would you think some things is wrong?" Rose asked with a carefree laugh, or at least what she had meant to be a carefree laugh. She Turned away and started to walk.

"Rose, you're avoiding my questions, obviously something is wrong."

"Maybe I just don't want you two to be hurt again. Love hurts you know . . ." She shrugged.

"You aren't telling the truth."

"Well . . ." She turned around and faced him. "Do you really want to know the truth Sirius?"

"Yes."

Rose took a deep breath. "Sheisaprostitute." She said very quickly.

Sirius became wide-eyed as he processed the quick sentence. "Really?" he asked quietly, sitting on the grass.

Rose nodded.

Sirius sat still, looking absolutely petrified at this new information. Then he shook his head and transformed into a dog. Padfoot sprinted into the forbidden forest; he would spend the next few hours convincing himself that he had somehow misheard.

* * *

**The Marauder's Fourth Year**

It was the last week of the fourth year of school. The Marauders were stuck in detention for the day, plus Severus and minus Remus. Rose was in the Hospital Wing getting a check up to make sure she was just perfect. So that left Lily and Dimela to walk around out side and chat.

"So, Lil's what are you're plans this summer?"

"I think that I'll try to kick my sister out of the house."

"Oooh, can I come help?"

Lily considered this. "Well, you'd have to get along with my parents and put up with their questions, but it would certainly be much more fun with you around."

"I'll ask my mother about it, I'm sure she'd be okay with it. And I have yet to see where you live." She laughed. "So, last week of school."

"Last week of school."

"Rose was cursed by James."

Lily nodded. "Yeah, that's just because James is a egotistical sloth."

"Sirius asked me out." Dimela paused for only a moment. "Lockhart is going out with Tammy from Ravenclaw."

"When did Sirius ask you out?" Lily asked patiently.

"Yesterday, I was finishing up my detention and he was starting his and we were just walking in the halls and talking. He said that the halls were far too dangerous for me to be walking around in them." She laughed. "But anyway, he asked."

"What did you say?"

"I said I'd think about it."

"You do know that you just happen to be next on his list."

"I know that." She shrugged. "He's hot, and popular, and, well, I might as well go out with him. Every one else he's ever asked has, and it doesn't last too long. We both live in London so I assume it will just be a week of snogging and then he'll get rid of me."

Lily laughed. "Well, you might have fun. Or you can stand up for blondes everywhere and say that you're not that easy and give him a good talking to."

"Lily, I am that easy." She smiled. "Anywho, if the blondes need standing up for then I'm not going to be the one doing it. I'm the stereotypical blonde, people don't take me serious."

"Well, then, I'll allow you to have a go at it, but I would also like to encourage you to reform him while your at it. Enjoy your three days in the limelight."

"Oh, I will."

* * *

**Fall 1996**

That evening Sirius found that he was worn out, and was honestly willing to believe that he had misheard, and that Dimela was a not a prostitute. However, he now knew her relative location, and was willing to make a trip to London to see if he could find out the truth about her. He took a deep breath and then apparated to the downtown area of London.

London was silent, it was after all evening and so all the people were at home with their families, and if they weren't there then they would be in the red light district. It was a town going to sleep.

Sirius noted that the lack of people outside should make it much easier to see Dimela, but much less likely that he would run into her. Still, he was feeling optimistic, so Sirius chose a direction and began walking.

As far as the night could tell the man was on a wild goose chase, seeing as there were very, very few people actually out side and those out side were not in a hurry to show their faces to this random man.

Sirius finally reached something that appeared from the outside to have the primary function of a bar, and he stepped inside.

Inside this place, that had been mistaken for a bar, it looked like a scene from Jekyll and Hyde, just instead of the little innocent Rose being there singing it was the older and more seductive Dimela, wearing only a red corset. It was a sight that seemed slightly innocent when you only

looked at the stage and thought of a play, but the scene after that, that was what could send any lover to disgust.

Dimela herself looked almost the same as her teenaged self. Still with blonder than blonde hair, eyes of sapphire, and bronze-y skin. She had grown a few inches and had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.

Once the song was over Dimela walked off the stage, she stood straight and had a confident air about her. She walked over to a group of men at one table and sat down on one of their laps. "What's the occasion, fellows?" She asked casually, taking the man's hat and putting it on herself.

The man laughed and put and arm around her waist, He pulled out a cigar and lit it and puffed and then handed it to Dimela who shook her head to the offer. "It's the anniversary of my divorce," he replied.

"Oh you poor man, how long ago was that?" She laughed and put her arms around his neck, moving so that she was facing him, her legs on either side of his.

The image burned itself into the depths of Sirius's mind, and he was far too disgusted to do anything except walk directly out of there, apparate to the edge of Hogwarts, and attempt to find Rose and demand details from her. That, or bemoan the fact that the love of his life was willing to do, well, anyone around for a little money. He felt like yelling, or throwing up, or crying his heart out, and he wasn't sure which emotion was most dominant. Through all this, he still manage to hold onto the thought that he needed to find Rose, so he walked determinedly toward her office.

Rose, not so surprisingly, wasn't in her office and instead was in the dungeons with Severus trying to think of a costume to wear for Halloween. It seemed like such a hard decision, there were so many things she could be, and truly, since most of her clothes that she had were hand-me-downs from her mother and grandmother (she was poor after all) she could dress as any kind of princess of maiden or heroin that she wanted too. That was why she couldn't decide.

Sirius hit his head on a wall softly as he realized that she wasn't in her office. Then, with his determination only slightly hindered, he moved back down the stairs towards the dungeons.

"Why does this seem like the biggest problem in my life?" Rose sighed. "It's just Halloween after all . . ." She looked at Severus and leaned back in the chair, looking up at the ceiling and closing her eyes.

Just as Severus was about to reply, Sirius roughly opened the door. "Rose," Sirius requested determinedly, "can we go talk somewhere for a few minutes?"

Rose sat up and looked at Sirius about to say that they could just talk there until she saw him face. "Of course." She stood up and walked out of the office. "Lead the way."

Sirius tried not to lose his determination as he found the closest empty room, and led Rose into it. He shut the door behind them.

Rose looked at Sirius and waited for him to talk, she knew full well what this would be about so she needn't ask.

"Why?" Sirius asked with an absolute vehemence even as he voice almost broke along with his heart.

"She was desperate . . . I suppose." Rose replied, trying to not to break down and cry but instead stay strong.

"Why was she desperate?" The six syllables had a taxing effect on Sirius, and he leaned against a wall for support.

Rose shrugged. "You know Dimela. She may be vain and self-centered and not have too much common sense, but she's proud and she'd rather sink to rock bottom than get help from someone." She sighed. "It's not like I was ecstatically jumping for joy when I found out. I offered her money, a place to stay, anything, but . . ." She shrugged again.

"Yes, but," he almost didn't know where to start asking questions, he knew too little. For the millionth time Sirius cursed Azkaban and the government of the wizarding world. "When?"

"Last March, so a little over a year." She replied swiftly.

"When did you lose touch with her?"

Rose shrugged. "For two months, February and March was when we went broke and I left for a little while. I came back and she told me then, and we still talk in letters but not much in person. She works at night I work in the day, you know."

"Have you told anyone else?"

"Severus . . . and you. And Dumbledore knows about it . . . I think that's all."

Sirius nodded, it seemed natural that Rose would tell those people. "Thank you," he said meekly.

Rose nodded and walked over to Sirius, she hesitated for a moment then put her arms around him and hugged him. "You know, as corny as I'm going to sound here, you still love her and I'm sure she still loves you, I mean, you two were truly in love up until . . ." She stopped herself and sighed. "Well, maybe you can succeed where I failed."

Sirius began seeing the humor in the situation. "In a way, it does put us on something of equal ground."

Rose laughed as she stepped back from Sirius. "Well anything else I can do for you Sirius?"

Sirius shook his head. "No, I think that's about all for now."

"I have to go figure out a costume . . . You'd think I was picking out my wedding dress or something." She laughed, not seeing the irony in that and then hugged Sirius again and said a quick good-bye, and then walked back to Severus' office.

Severus sat patiently in his office and awaited her return.

Rose knocked on the door and walked inside. "Sorry about that." She said.

Sirius returned to the Defense Against the Dark Arts quarters in a state of relative despair. The day had been a long and depressing day, and he was ready to curl up near the fireplace and sleep. However, as he walked into Remus's room, it became clear that he wasn't going to get sleep very quickly. Even the living room was in a state of disarray, with bit and pieces of potential costumes scattered about the room. Sitting on a couch in the middle of it all, was Remus Lupin. Sirius carefully stepped through the mess to give his friend a nice lecture on how to not clutter up the doggy bed, when he suddenly was almost overcome by another wave of sadness. '_Remus gets to spend all this time preparing for this simply party with Rose. It's such a sweet gesture, and I'll probably never get to go through it with Dimela again.'_

It was Remus, therefore, that spoke first. "Hello, Sirius. What's going on?"

Sirius sighed. "Well, I've had a very, very long day and I want to sleep."

"I'm sorry, I'll clear up this room in moment. After all, I think I've found a fairly good costume," he gestured triumphantly to a small bundle of clothes in his lap, which Sirius found to be momentarily indistinguishable from all other scattered pieces of clothing occupying the rest of the room.

Sirius nodded and sat on a wonderfully clothes free chair while Remus cleared the floor, and tried to cheer things up by whistling songs from Godspell. Sirius found the tunes to have rather the opposite effect on him as he felt his feeling contrast sharply with the lightness of the songs, and he began to feel a higher level of depression.

Fortunately, Remus was fairly effective at cleaning and soon returned to his previous spot in the room. "Sirius, what's really going on?"

Sirius frowned. "I saw Dimela again."

Remus looked carefully at Sirius, as if trying to determine if this was related. In the end he prompted, "But?"

"But I don't approve of her occupation."

"You don't want to talk about this."

Sirius nodded.

"You know, in my attempt to find a costume, I managed to drag up a video of the Hogwarts musicals, would that cheer you up?"

Sirius nodded.

Therefore the next five hours or so were spent reminiscing, laughing, and making fun of themselves. They discussed the dullness of understudy roles, the corniness of Little Shop of Horrors, and the absolute oddity that was Jekyll and Hyde. That was the musical that absorbed months of their lives thoughtlessly, and the true one that had stuck with them in memory. Though it may not be the most well known musical, the Hogwarts Drama Club's first true success was there, as they had finally gotten the training with muggle musicals necessary to pull it off.

At the end of it all, Sirius felt considerably better, and while he admitted that he missed James's policy of tackling a problem head on, he felt very glad to have a friend who knew when to avoid a problem that needed to be avoided. Sirius also came to realize through watching the video that there were a lot of women out there, and that he just might be able to find another one. Even though he had his doubts of this "more fish" philosophy, Sirius felt sated and he said a quick good night and transformed into a dog.

Padfoot walked over to his bed, and curled up, feeling safe in the knowledge that while there may be no one that could make him as happy as Dimela, now that he knew where she was he could certainly win her back.


	7. Halloween

Author's Note: Hey we actually got two reviews last time, therefore this one is longer. We'll pretend like those two things are related. . Anyway, read and review please. The reviews are always amazing to have along with the actual reading.

**Marauders' Fourth Year**

It was the end of the fourth year and every one piled onto the train and found their compartments and sat down and got comfortable and ready for the long ride back home.

It was a rather sunny day, filled with laughter and joy as the students chattered on about summer plans. Lily, Dimela, and Rose sat together in a compartment, as usual having a glorious time.

"I hate going home. I absolutely love my parents, of course, but I just hate having to see Petunia in all of her stuck up and greater than thou attitude. She thinks she's so special just because she has a boyfriend who's on the football team. He's not even that much of a looker, and he's definitely not smart. He'll have broken up with her by the end the summer, also. They always do. And then she complains about how it's my entire fault because I freak them all out, which just shows that she's completely mad!" Lily was saying, as she looked out the window.

Dimela laughed at her friend, "I rather like going home to see my sister. Then again, she is only two, so I suppose she just hasn't hit the annoying sister age, yet. Although I could pass on having to meet my mother's new boyfriends. That does get annoying."

Lily shrugged. "At least you have a big house."

"And a boyfriend." Rose added, looking up from the book she was reading.

"For at least the next few days." Lily replied.

"Well what about you Rose? What don't you like about home?" Dimela asked.

"Me?" Rose sighed and looked out the window. "Well I don't like my mother's liver pie. I keep trying to tell her "mom, I don't like liver, I just don't want to eat it, I find it rather disgusting and it makes my stomach sour." And yet she always insists on making it during the summer. Granted she only makes it once and she always makes something else for me to eat."

Lily and Dimela laughed and Rose opened back up her book and started to read again.

Summer vacation, a joyous time.

* * *

**Fall 1997**

Dimela lay on the ground of her room with a little ribbon in her hand as she played with a rather large tabby cat. She had been far too lazy that day to actually put on normal clothes and so was just wearing her silky little night gown (compliments of the brothel). The Cat was having a joyous ol' time just running back and forth and all in all putting on quite an amusing little show for Dimela as he jumped up and fell onto his back and did other cat-like things.

Severus, having obtained specific directions from Rose, was able to quickly find Dimela's room. He paused for a moment at the threshold to the room, then knocked loudly on her door.

Dimela groaned and put her head down onto the carpet, "Come in!" She yelled, startling the cat, who sat up and watched the door suspiciously, ready to pounce if need be.

Severus opened the door and walked in. "Hello, Dimela."

Dimela sat up quickly and turned to looked at Severus with a sort of half glare, half surprised look on her face. "I only work during the night." She replied.

"I know," he responded. "That's not exactly why I'm here."

"Well I can't imagine any other reason."

"Poor Dimela, have you forgotten about the simple human art of conversing?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were human."

Severus shook his head. "So, I hear that you've resorted to prostitution. I thought you were above that."

"I'm not above anything, you should now that by now, Snape." She stood up and brushed out her gown, then crossed her arms and looked at him. "Why are you here?"

"To check up on you. Are you doing fairly well?"

"I'm fine. Why are you checking up on me? I'm a grown woman I don't need a babysitter." She said looking at Severus suspiciously.

Severus shrugged. "I would think that a pimp would almost count as a babysitter, but I am checking up on you because I really do find it surprising in a way that you would become a prostitute."

"Why's that?"

"You always had such strong morals. Given, you seemed to have nothing against kissing everyone in the school, but this," he gestured at the room in general, "is just too much."

"I get free night gowns. I think it's fine." She shrugged and sat down on the bed and smiled, "You don't even know me Snape. We were never friends, we never sat down and had a_ real_ 'heart to heart' conversation. You don't know me."

"Maybe, but I also don't hate you, whereas you seem to straight out despise me."

"I don't . . . I can't despise you. I've tried, many a time. And I used too, but there are two events in our history that keep me from straight out despising you, and it's bloody annoying."

Severus laughed. "That's a bit odd, because I would think the fact that I was present at two of the more depressing moments of your life would cause more enmity, not less."

"That just shows how much you don't know me."

"Well then, now is a perfectly good time for a true heart to heart. What don't I know?"

"You can't just **have** a heart to heart. It has to be brought on by passion or depression."

"Okay then, we can just talk and maybe the conversation will eventually turn itself conveniently into a heart to heart." He sat down next to her. "Now, really, what is something interesting about you that I don't know?"

"I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make Rita Skeeters hair curl . . . and I'm in love." She nodded. "Yep, I bet you didn't know that."

Severus smiled. "Okay, whom are you in love with?"

"My kitty."

"You sound like Filch."

"I sleep with Filch."

Severus grimaced. "Okay, that's nice."

"What about you? Are you still in love with Rose and trying to steal her away from Remus?"

"Well, yes."

"You're never going to get her. Rose and Remus were made for each other, there's no way to change that. They love each other more than Phyche loved Eros. She would travel to the ends of the earth and back again for him, and he would do the same."

Severus nodded. "A hopeless cause, perhaps, but one that I am nevertheless dedicated to."

"A selfish cause too. She wouldn't be happy with you."

"Probably."

Dimela smiled, "Every once in a while you're actually just a little bit cute."

Severus laughed. "Every once in a while you give these bizarre little half compliments that mostly serve as a reminder of how you usually think that I am a bug under your feet."

"Oh no, most of the time I think that your dead sexy," Dimela said, the sarcasm she had meant to be put into that statement not at all coming out.

"I'm sure you do," Severus said doubtfully.

"For all you know, maybe I do."

He looked into her eyes thoughtfully. "No, you don't."

"I think that you'd look just lovely if you had some dental work. Do that and come back and then I'll tell you what I think of you."

Severus shrugged and pulled out his wand. "_Belladente_," he said, then smiled at Dimela.

Dimela laughed and flopped down on the bed. "If it was really that easy than why didn't you do it before?"

"It's an unfortunately highly temporary spell. It's just too much effort to cast that every ten minutes or so."

"Then find a more permanent one."

"I've tried."

"Dumbledore would know."

"Why would you think that?"

"I talked to him once . . ." She shrugged.

"About cosmetics?"

"Yes. Why not?" She laughed, "He taught me the spell to change my hair permanently, and then there was another one, but I can't think what it was. I think it was something about acne, but I didn't care about that one because my skin has always been almost perfect."

"So he might as well know something for correcting teeth. I'll bring that up to him the next time I have to speak with him." He adopted a serious tone of voice. "Yes, Dumbledore, the death eaters are trying to kill Harry again, and do you know any permanent spells for making teeth look pretty?"

Dimela giggled and looked at Severus, "Well for all that it counts, I think that you look very sexy with straight teeth. Now just throw a ribbon in that hair and wear something other than your black robes for the next time that you talk to Rose and who knows what may happen, she might even kiss you."

He laughed and he knew already that he was never going to take that particular piece of advice. "How's your life?"

"It's fine. And yours?"

"All right. So, what do you think of Sirius?"

"He's a bloody traitor and an idiot and a cheater and a killer and . . . I hate him."

"Harsh."

"He's the reason Lily and James are dead."

"I think you'd be interested to know that he isn't really."

"Would I be?"

"You sound reluctant to hate him even when you think he's a traitor, maybe knowing that he isn't would push that back into minor dislike."

"Isn't he, though?" Dimela asked, trying to keep back her hope.

"Well, he's certainly not a death eater."

"So? He could still be a traitor."

"To you individually, maybe. To James or to the Order, certainly not."

"Then why did Voldemort find where Lily and James were and then kill them?"

"Because Sirius wasn't keeping their secret."

She looked at him suspiciously, "Then who was?"

"Wormtail."

"Peter?"

"Yes, Peter, who is alive and well and living in London."

"Why would Lily and James trust him?"

Severus shrugged. "That I don't know."

"He's weak, and foolish, and . . ." Dimela looked at the ceiling as if she'd finally understood what her friends' logic was, "and no one would expect anyone to trust him with that sort of information."

"It's a very complex little conspiracy, isn't it?"

"James has made more complex." She closed her eyes. "So Peter was the one that betrayed us?"

"Yes, Peter is the one who betrayed you. Don't you feel somewhat better about that?"

"No."

"Okay."

Dimela sat up and looked at Severus. "Thanks."

"Your welcome."

"I'm not sure if I believe you or not, but thanks." She laughed. "So . . . why did you come here?"

"To make sure that you hadn't totally changed into a whole new person."

"I haven't. I never will."

"Good."

She nodded and looked at the ground.

He looked at the door. "I could leave now."

"You could."

"I could return to Rose fawning over Remus."

"You could." She looked at him. "You wouldn't want to."

He smiled. "Not really."

"You don't have to."

"But what else is there to do?"

"You could just sit here and take a break." She shrugged and stood up, going back to the ground in front of the cat-bed and picking up the string. "Or you could go find a prostitute and take a better break."

He laughed. "Are you paid for saying things like that?"

"Sadly, no."

He looked at her. "Well, do you have any good books?"

"No. I don't have the money to have books."

"You really need to be paid for advertising your peers."

"They're too cheap here."

"Perhaps you should get some other line of badly paying work that isn't also illegal."

"But the illegal part is what makes it fun." She rolled over onto her back and looked at him. "It's not as fun to be in a low paying job that is legal, then I'd have nothing to keep me there."

"Then you'd make your way up to a better paying higher level job. You might even be able to buy paperbacks."

"I'm okay with just reading the books that Rose sends me every once in a while."

"Good for Rose for keeping you in touch with literature."

"You know, this isn't such a bad occupation."

"Why?"

"It's fun, I get to make people happy, I get to meet a wide variety of people, I'm always learning new things, and it's fun."

"That's an interesting way to put it."

"You're just a pessimist."

"True."

"Yep."

He sighed. "All right, I should probably get going."

Dimela nodded and stood up. "It was nice to see you." She replied as a formality.

He stood up as well. "It actually was nice to see you. Well, have a good day, I'm sure I'll see you again eventually."

"Maybe."

"Probably."

"One of us may die before that time, though."

He shrugged. "Well, good bye anyway."

"If I don't ever see you again, I hope you have a decent life."

"I hope you find your happily ever after. Really though, these good byes are just going on for forever."

"Then leave."

Obediently, he did.

* * *

**Marauders' Summer between Fourth and fifth years**

Sirius knocked on the oaken door of the mansion and considered the amount of money that it would take to build such a place. He looked over the golden doorknob and the small vines carved into the door, and whistled in amazement. For the first time he realized that he was dating someone who was truly rich.

A man opened the door soon after the knock and looked down at Sirius in a manner of arrogance and contempt. "Yes?" said the man after fully assessing Sirius.

Sirius looked up at the man. "Is Dimela here?" he asked neutrally.

"Yes, who may I say is calling for her?"

"Sirius Black," Sirius replied. "Are you her father?" he asked suspiciously, due to the fact that the man was more polite than Sirius's interpretation of the average father.

"No, I am the butler. Mr. Macnair doesn't live in this house. You may come in while I go fetch Miss Lyte." He bowed and let Sirius into the front hall, then walked off to find the lady in question.

Sirius made an honest attempt to not look too impressed by the large, spiraling staircases and high balconies looking down at the main hall, all with golden railings, of course. At this point Sirius had to remind himself that balconies were not built solely to have eggs thrown off of them. The floor was made of checkered tiles, and there was a mural on the ceiling. Sirius felt dizzy staring upwards at an array of angels and such, and found that he couldn't tell what was going on in the mural at all, but it was very impressive nonetheless.

The butler walked back into the room from a side door and cleared his throat to make his presence known. "Miss Lyte will be here in a moment." He said, then walked out of the room again.

Sirius managed to nod and tear his gaze away from the angels of confusion. He looked at the numerous doors lining the walls of the room and decided that it couldn't be too harmful to open one of them up and see what was inside. He picked one at random and opened it to reveal a magnificent ballroom complete with sparking chandeliers, floating unlit candles, and some particular fancy mirrors lining the walls to make the room look even larger. Sirius wondered just how gigantic this mansion was, and whether it contained any small closets, or if you had to walk into a large room to grab a towel.

"Isn't it just lovely?" Dimela asked, popping up beside Sirius, "my mother throws the most wonderful balls here. It's rather remarkable how many people still go to balls now a days, yet I suppose it's in the wizarding world and nothing much ever changes there." She laughed and herded Sirius out of the room and shut the door behind her. "So what are you doing here Sirius?"

"I was planning on surprising you and dragging you on a date." Sirius found his gaze inevitably drawn to the ceiling. "Does it move? What's the point?" he asked thoughtfully, not really expecting an answer.

"Walden wanted a mural on our ceiling so he hired a muggle artist to do it. Although it was a mess when the man went snooping around and saw our floating candles." She laughed and led Sirius out of the house and too the huge front balcony. "So where were you planning to take me on this surprise date?"

"There's a new French restaurant at Diagon Alley, I wanted to try it," Sirius said without any real focus. He was currently fascinated with the fountain in front of them. "God, this whole place is gargantuan."

"I know. It makes for quite amusing games of hide and go seek."

"Family reunions must be fun," Sirius replied, reluctantly looking back at Dimela.

Dimela rolled her eyes. "There's no family to reunion."

Sirius nodded. "So, do you want to go to a new and unexplored French restaurant?"

"I'd love to." She made her way down the staircases and to the dirt road that led to her front door. "It will make a perfectly boring day just a little more interesting."

"It's actually in walking distance," Sirius said, feeling much better on the dirt road, he took Dimela's hand and led her away from the fancy house.

It took the two about fifteen minutes to get out of Dimela's long driveway, then another five minutes for them to give up on walking and just hitched a ride on the Knight Bus. Soon the two 

teens were in Diagon Alley and sitting at one of the best seats of the new French restaurant and ordering their food.

"This is very nice, thank you Sirius." Dimela commented.

"Your welcome, Dimela," Sirius said. "And the French onion soup," he added to the waiter, handing over his menu.

"So," Dimela looked down at the empty spot in front of her. "um, how's you're summer been?"

"It's been summer. Dull and annoying," Sirius replied with a shrug.

"That's nice."

"Isn't it? So, what do you think of summers?"

"I think they are absolutely lovely, and very enjoyable."

"You probably love your family."

"Not really. I happen to hate my father and my mother's boyfriend. My mother is okay most of the time. My butler is a nitwit. And my little sister is about three years old so she's not too interesting."

"Well, that sounds okay. What makes your summer so enjoyable?"

"Well the weather is beautiful, there's always something to do in my house, and I get to go over to Rose's place all the time and that in itself is just fun."

Sirius laughed. "Friends, they're helpful. With a house that big, I would be impressed if you ever ran out of things to do. You probably have a few thousand books that are boring just decorating a thousand square foot library."

"Just think Beauty and the Beast." She laughed. "We actually have two libraries."

"How many bedrooms do you have?"

"Twenty-ish. Last time we counted at least."

"Probably years ago."

"Before Walden left at least."

"Who is Walden?"

"Walden Macnair, my father."

Sirius thought about this. "He's a death eater," he concluded.

"Yes."

Sirius looked at Dimela suspiciously. "My parents might actually like you. That would be scary."

Dimela looked back at Sirius suspiciously, "Really, why?"

"You are a pureblood, right?"

"I'm a pureblood mutt, yes."

"And you're father's a death eater. You also look beautiful. I believe you satisfy all of their requirements."

"I was more asking why it's scary."

"They're obsessed with blood quality and I hate them. I can't believe I'm dating someone that my parents might like. It's just wrong."

Dimela didn't know whether to take that as an insult or just a statement so she just shrugged her shoulders and sipped her water.

Sirius smiled at her. "You really are beautiful, though. It's hard to convince myself that I can't possibly like you when you have such superb cyan eyes."

"So do you say that to all the girls or just the ones with 'such superb cyan eyes'?" She laughed.

"I say that most of my previous girlfriends have had variations on blue eyes, but not your divine cyan."

Dimela nodded. "Sure."

"You don't sound very trusting."

"I'm not."

Sirius laughed. "Why don't you trust me?"

"Because you've go out with far too many girls and given them far too many corny lines for my liking. But it's very flattering." She shrugged and sipped more on her water.

"Cyan is not a corny color," Sirius whined.

"Oh no, not at all."

"How can I earn your trust?"

"Why do you need my trust?"

Sirius shrugged. "I need you to believe the fact that I think you're beautiful. I need to be able to uphold a conversation with you without you distrusted everything I say. I need for whatever dates we have together to not be awkward."

"It's not going to be awkward. And I do think that you think that I'm beautiful, I know that every one thinks I'm beautiful." She laughed.

Sirius held up his water glass. "To a girl with some self-confidence."

They toasted and then for the rest of lunch just chatted about school, friends, and other idle topics. After lunch the two went out for a walk in London and soon the rain that always came in summer came and the two ran towards the closest shelter, the Black house. Which was, at that moment, empty, save a house elf.

Sirius led Dimela into the bleak house and felt ashamed by it. "Welcome to my house," he said anyway. "Do you want any hot chocolate?"

"I'd love some." Dimela said, walking into the house with her clothes dripping wet and probably just a little bit see through (which Dimela could only blame herself for deciding to wear white). "It's so cute!" She exclaimed about the house.

Sirius looked at the grey, black, and navy blue decorating scheme and privately thought otherwise. He walked toward the kitchen. "Peppermint or normal?"

"Peppermint please." Dimela had wandering into the living room and was looking around at the little place. "It's so small!"

Sirius handed her a mug of steaming peppermint hot chocolate. "Compared to your estate, any house is small."

Dimela laughed and took the mug from him, starting to sip on it. "Well, I think it's cute."

"I think it's dreary," Sirius responded, sitting on the couch.

"Compared to my house it's just the perfect amount of dreary."

Sirius shrugged. "I'm glad you enjoy it. Do you want to try switching houses for a week, or a year, or forever?"

Dimela shook her head. "Never." She laughed and sat down next to him.

"A wise decision." Sirius observed how Dimela, all bright colors, cheered up the living room of his nightmares. It was an impressive optical illusion.

"This is the type of house I want to live in when I'm out of school. Well maybe a different color scheme, but still," She shrugged.

Sirius attempted to project other colors onto the wall behind her. "I guess that could be okay."

"I think a light blue maybe, or orange." She laughed again. "Or I could go completely crazy and do all kinds of bright colors."

Sirius experimentally kissed her, just to see how she'd respond.

Dimela sunk into the kiss and deepened it, placing her mug down on the table.

By the time Regulus walked unsuspectingly into his own house, some serious snogging was occurring on that particular couch. "Hello, Sirius's girlfriend," he greeted Dimela overly happily, hoping to break them up.

Dimela reluctantly sat up and looked at Regulus. "Hello, Sirius's brother," she greeted back with a smile.

"I see we have something in common already," Regulus said to her before speaking to his brother. "Mom and Dad are coming in soon, so you might want to get her out of here."

Dimela giggled and stood up. "I'll leave."

"Don't bother," Mrs. Black said from the doorway with fake hospitality. "Why don't you and I go have a little chat?"

Dimela nodded and walked over to Mrs. Black, waiting for her too lead the way.

Mrs. Black walked over to the kitchen, then looked back at Dimela. "Who are you and why are you here?" she interrogated.

"I'm Dimela Lyte, it's very nice to meet you Mrs. Black." She replied with a smile. "And I'm here because it was raining out side so your son brought me here to get out of the rain."

"For how many generations has your family been wizards?"

"Since forever."

"Lyte, you say your last name is. Where do you get that name from?"

"My mother. She's from Spain, from the line of Lyte purebloods. Lytes and Quintanas."

Mrs. Black narrowed her eyes. "Why are you interested in Sirius?"

"Because he's interested in me."

Mrs. Black rolled her eyes. "Is that all?"

"Well . . . yes, I believe so." She shrugged. "It all has to start some where, it's what my dad says."

Mrs. Black glared at her. "Get out."

"It was nice to meet you Mrs. Black." Dimela said smugly, then turned around and walked out of the kitchen. "I'll see you later Sirius." She said cheerfully, then walked out of the house and into the rain, walking home.

* * *

Fall 1997

Rose looked at herself once more in the mirror, finally satisfied after an hour of alterations to the costume. She touched it off by slipping a red lily into her braid and then walked out the door and headed down for the Death Day party. The long white skirt of her dress trailing along the stairs as she walked down them and her white heels clicked in a rhythm on the stone. She smiled as she walked, her red stained lips full and in contrast to her normal light pink color, and her rosy cheeks stood out on her pale skin. Over the form-fitting white dress that Rose wore, she wore a deep royal purple corset laced up very tight. Her Blonde hair worn in curls and held back in a braid that hung over her shoulder, leaving some strands to fall out and frame her face.

Remus heard the soft clicks of shoes on the staircase, and he turned from his vantage point on the ground floor to see Rose walking down the stairs. He stepped towards the stairs, and waited patiently for her arrival. Meanwhile he worried if his costume, based off of Marius from _Les Miserables_, was really okay. He was wearing brown boots and not overly tight brown pants with a yellow and red sash around his waist. Above that was a loose fitting white shirt with a brown vest. The sheer amount of brown in the costume was really what was scaring him.

"I fear I may come out singing "On my own" or "A little Fall of Rain" by the end of tonight." Rose commented as she walked gracefully down the stairs after looking at his costume. She reached the ground and stepped off of the stairs and looked at Remus in one movement and her smile grew, which seemed to be a result from her heart starting to beat much faster the moment that her eyes locked with his.

Remus decided to take it as a complement, considering that those were both love songs, albeit somewhat hopeless love songs. Meanwhile he managed painfully to break eye contact so as to quickly look at her costume. "You look radiant," he commented.

"Well thank you. You look truly handsome." She laughed lightly. "I suppose we shouldn't just stand here and compliment each other all night, it may get boring."

"Well, we certainly have other plans. To begin with, there's this Death Day Party that we have both promised to attend."

"Well then, lead the way M'sieur Marius." She gestured in the basic directed with a sweep of her purple gloved hand.

He laughed and did so, hoping that the silence that came upon them as they neared the party wasn't too awkward to be bared.

Rose didn't really realize the silence as she fumbled with her hands, trying to figure out where to put them, as she had the urge to set her hand on his. In the end she folded her hands together behind her and looked straight ahead of her as she tried to push all insecurities and worries out of her head.

Severus, who had been in the party for about fifteen minutes already, and was growing fairly tired of having no one to truly talk to (funny how one can become used to such a luxury to so quickly.) Therefore he spotted Rose when she neared the room, but he was still forced to sit patiently in the proper garb of a Mr. Darcy, from _Pride and Prejudice_, instead of rushing out to greet her because his dignity demanded it. Still, he did slowly make his way to the door so as to greet her once she arrived.

Rose hadn't noticed Severus when she first walked in; instead she had turned to Remus and smiled. "We've finally found your talent, to escort people in complete silence." She said lightly, and with a laugh. Not that the walk had bugged her at all, she just felt the need to say something, and that was what had come to mind.

Severus was somewhat unhappy with this arrangement, and decided to cut in. "Rose, you managed to show up. For a moment, I had my doubts."

Rose turned around and put a hand over her mouth so as to not squeal. She ever so quickly regained her posture, although a smile seemed to be unwilling to leave her lips. "I would never not show up after I told some one that I would show up. I just took so very long to make myself presentable."

Severus smirked in returned. "Well, you certainly made yourself look quite presentable."

Remus, meanwhile, resisted the urge to glare at the two unforgivingly.

"Well thank you." Rose curtsied. "And you certainly made yourself look quite a lot the man in the book." She looked at both of the men. "I compliment you both on a job well done."

Severus gave a small bow in response.

Remus laughed and cut in. "So, Rose, shall we go sit down?"

"Sure." Rose smiled and turned to Remus. "Again, lead the way."

Again Remus led the way, but having learned from previous mistakes he decided to talk as well. "So, Severus, how long have you been at this party?"

"About a quarter of an hour," Severus replied nonchalantly.

"Well I'm glad that we didn't keep you waiting too long."

Rose tried to keep from laughing, not that the conversation itself was actually amusing, it was that Remus and Severus were talking and the way that they talked seemed so awkward.

"I'm glad of that as well."

Remus, with a great deal of relief, spotted three chairs close to each other. "Well, I think I've found a place to sit."

It took all of Severus's self control to not make a comment on the obviousness of the situation, and he grimaced slightly with the effort.

Rose smiled and sat down in one of the chairs, the middle one. She smiled and looked at Remus. "Thank you."

Remus smiled kindly at her, and admired the way her gloves set off the color of her eyes. "Your welcome."

Rose had folded her hands in her lap and nodded. She took deep breathes and tried to calm down the best she could. She had though that Severus being there would have helped her stop being so nervous, although apparently she was wrong.

Severus looked at the expressly nervous couple and realized why he had been invited to the party in the first place. Still, it was a somewhat awkward situation and it was hard to resist being nervous for their sake. "So, Rose, what have you been doing this past week?"

"Well I've been teaching, but mostly I've been tearing apart my wardrobe." Rose smiled as she looked at Severus, her eyes clearing apologizing for the awkwardness and anything else she may need to apologize for. "And yourself?"

"Teaching, conducting detentions, most of the same old stuff. However I do believe that I have finally gotten the entire closet of potion supplies to be alphabetical. It'll probably only remain this way for a few days before some lazy second year messes it up."

Rose laughed. "I must say you don't have much of a life if that's what you've been doing." She replied very sweetly.

"I would have to say that I agree, but as you have also spent the week tearing apart closets you really have no right to speak. Mr. Lupin, however, may be able to make a point here. Have you gotten yourself a life?"

Remus tried to laugh as honestly as he could. "Not much more than you two, I suppose. I think it's just a fact that no Hogwarts teacher can really afford a life outside of Hogwarts."

Rose couldn't help but to giggle at their conversation. "Or maybe it's just us three that are stuck lifeless."

Severus nodded. "A fair assessment, considering that only Lupin here has ever been popular, and that was only before a certain set of articles by Delores Umbrage."

"I'd hate to be popular. Not in this school at least. Bad things happen to those that every one likes." Rose laughed and looked at Remus. "Although I suppose bad things happen anyways."

"Mostly it appears that bad things happen to those people who are widely known, whether they are liked or disliked," Remus replied.

Rose nodded. "How about we don't talk about bad things, this has so far been a good day."

Severus clenched his teeth as his carefully cultured conversation came to an end. The room lapsed momentarily back into silence as the three tried to come up with something else to speak about.

Rose grinned and stood up and looked at the two guys. "How about those Yankee's?" She asked with a laugh.

"What about them in particular?" Severus asked.

Rose laughed. "They're actually having a pretty bad season this year," she replied.

"Well, that's somewhat disappointing," Remus said. "Which team is doing particularly well?"

Rose shrugged. "I don't particularly like baseball."

"It's a pretty boring, low scoring sort of sport. At least with Quittich you're guaranteed that the winning team will have at least 150 points," Severus commented.

"Yes, that's true, although Baseball does have its good points. Like you get to spends hours under the sun with fatty foods, and you get to watch hot guys with two digit IQ's run around the field, and such."

"From a very far distance without the help of a proper set of binoculars," Severus added.

Rose shrugged. "It also has cotton candy. Now tell me, does Quittich pass out cotton candy? No." She shook her head. "And Cotton Candy is the best, nothing, and I mean nothing can beat cotton candy . . . but for maybe strawberries, but still."

Remus shook his head. "I'd volunteer chocolate as a definite contender for beating cotton candy. When did you get a chance to go to a baseball game anyway?"

"I was twenty five and Dimela came to my house and told me that she was going to New York to see a Baseball game and I was going with her." Rose replied.

"Interesting. Did you return to England immediately after the game, or did you at least stick around for a while?" Severus asked.

"We stuck around for a day after only because Dimela had fallen in love."

Severus smiled, in a way. "Is this what caused you to go to the ball game or what kept you after it?"

"Dimela falling in love is what caused us to stay, after all he was the most adorable kitten anyone has every seen. We saw him walking into the ball game, you see they were selling the animals out there and Dimela refused to leave the poor kitten all alone there." Rose laughed at the memory.

Severus smiled more honestly. "So, did she get the kitten in the end?"

"Yes actually, and she still has it." She shrugged.

Remus checked his watch out of boredom, and found, to his relief, that it was eight-o-clock. "A happy ending, then, to our time at this party. Snape, I'm afraid we must leave as our dinner is ready." Severus nodded and said good bye, and Remus happily held out his hand to Rose.

Rose took his hand and said good bye to Severus, then let Remus lead her.

Finally the two reached the kitchens of Hogwarts Castle, which had been specially decorated for the night with a small, circular, wooden table with a white tablecloth draped over it. The petals of a few red flower decorated the tablecloths. Salads and sparkling cider, (nonalcoholic, this was a school after all) in wine glasses, and water in somewhat plainer glasses were carefully pre-placed for them on the table. Remus smiled and appreciated the handiwork of the houseelves. "Well, the first course is served."

Rose smiled and looked at Remus. "Thank you," she said quietly, then walked over to one of the chairs and sat down.

"You're very welcome," Remus replied triumphantly as he sat in the other chair.

"I love it," she said and then started to eat the salad.

Remus took a bite of the salad. "I thought you would. Still, it's been far too long since we've had a nice evening together."

"It has been, far too long," Rose replied.

"I thought we may be able to make up for it tonight. Now, what would you really love to have for the rest of dinner?"

"I don't really care. As long as I get something." Rose shrugged. She figured that Remus knew that she wasn't much of a meat eater by that point in their lives and so he could just figure it out.

"Fair enough, but be warned that the cooks threatened to make something complicated out of tofu if you didn't give them any extra specifications."

"I'm okay with that." Rose sat up and looked at Remus. "It's so good to be here with you, Remus."

"It's wonderful to be spending this time with you as well." Remus raised his wine glass. "A toast to long awaited dinners?"

Rose picked up her own glass and clicked it gently against his. "To long awaited dinners."

He drank a little of the cider and laughed before setting the glass down. "Halloween was always one of my favorite times of year. It was a prankster's dream as well as such a happy holiday."

"Not every one thinks it's such a happy holiday. But I agree, it's a wonderful holiday and the day that I was always looking forward to at school." She laughed as well.

"Well, it is a happy holiday usually. People get to dress up in odd ways just for the heck of it, and you can demand candy and actually receive it. Utopia for children if there has ever has been such a thing."

Rose nodded. "So your favorite holiday is Halloween, what's your favorite flower?" She asked, pulling flower from looking at the flowers on the table.

"Marigolds. Why are you asking?"

Rose shrugged. "I want to know how much you've changed."

"By asking for my favorite flower? Alright, what's your favorite flower?"

"Morbidly, lilies. calla lilies." She replied, looking down at her lap.

"Showing that you refuse to change your preferences simply because death became involved."

"Well no, it just shows that now lilies are even more dear to me because they remind me of some one that I loved and who was always there for me."

"A nice philosophy," Remus responded. "And what is your favorite color?"

Rose laughed and blushed a bit and she fiddled with her fingers and stared at the plate in front of her. "Um, grey." She replied.

Remus laughed. "Is there a particular reason for this?"

Rose opened her mouth a few times and then shrugged in response as she couldn't really think of anything. She looked up at him and smiled.

He smiled in return, and leaned slightly toward her as he asked his next question. "Well, is there a particular color of grey you had in mind?"

Rose leaned slightly closer too, just as a habit of when one person leans closer the other person should too. "The color of your eyes," she replied, her voice lowered quite a lot as she said this.

Remus began fervently blushing as this, but managed to quickly regain his composer. "Really?" he asked, leaning in ever so slightly more and tilting his head to the right.

"Yes." Rose replied with a little smile. "You've got amazing eyes."

"Well, I suppose I am just fortunate that you can't see your own eyes as you are trying to make that kind of comment."

Rose laughed a little and leaned in a little closer. "I don't think anyone's eyes could be more wonderful to look at." She blushed even more when she said this and tried not to curse out loud at the full moon and at how blunt she was being at that moment.

Remus leaned in slightly more. "Well, I believe that you are horribly wrong." Somewhere, at the back of his mind, Remus figured out that their faces were only an inch or two apart.

Rose tilted her head a bit to the left. "Oh really? And why would you say something like that?"

"Because, my queen, your eyes are indeed the fairest in all the land."

Rose couldn't say anything after that. Her mind seemed to turn to mush and she just looking into Remus' eyes, her cheeks beet red, and her heart beating a thousand times a second. Her stomach seemed to do a few somersaults as she could feel his hot breath upon her face and she could smell him so well.

The part of Remus that had realized the close proximity earlier now became claustrophobic. He reminded himself that he was here was here with Rose as friends for the night, and he withdrew quickly from the near lip lock, sitting back up abruptly. At that moment two houseelves walked in with the main dish, saving him from having to explain.

* * *

**Marauders' Fifth year**

Students filed into the Hogwarts theater than no one knew they owned. The Marauders had been the first ones there and therefore all of them were sitting in the first row of the theater, talking about their summer vacation. It was the second week of the fifth year and the first meeting of the new drama club that some seventh year and Madame Hooch and Slughorn had decided to create. Most of the kids showing up for the meeting were Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, with a few Ravenclaws stuck in, yet there were very few Slytherins, the only ones of important being Regulus Black, Avery, and Severus Snape.

"I had a dreadful summer, I don't know about you guys, but mine was absolutely boring. I felt like I was going to die. There was nothing to do and my parents were all busy doing whatever they do, I was about to jump on my broom and fly over to one of your houses just to have a bit of fun." James was saying.

Sirius nodded his acknowledgement of this sentiment. "I had a dreadful summer too. Dimela actually met my parents. Have you seen her recently?"

Remus shook his head. "Nah, but I think that she is going to come to this meeting. Rose said something like that, anyway."

"Alright," Sirius said, looking around. "There they are," he commented when he saw them by the door. Slowly Sirius navigated the small crowds of Hufflepuffs to reach Dimela, Rose, and Lily. "Hello, Dimela," he greeted Dimela.

Dimela grinned. "Hello darling, how are ya'?" She asked in a southern drawl.

Rose snickered behind her hand, trying not to blatantly laugh.

"I'm doing quite well overall. So, I'm sorry that I didn't see you much this summer, and that you had to meet my family, are we still going out?"

"Well you haven't broken up with me yet have you?" She asked, continuing on with the accent. "And it's no problem at all about your family, they seemed like wonderful people, I 'specially liked your mother, she seems like quite a character." She laughed.

"A character, yes, but a kind person, no. What are you doing on Saturday afternoon, then?"

"Why is it always Saturdays with you boys? I'm completely free then and I would love to spend the afternoon with you, there's no other way I would want it."

Sirius tried to determine if Dimela was being sarcastic. In the end, he decided to just assume the more favorable answer. "Wonderful, Saturday it is then. If there's another date in the works, we can make it Tuesday, just to change things up."

"Oh but Tuesdays are no good for me. I'm busy those days, lot's of official Dimela-ing to do. But Wednesdays, those I love. So how about we plan two dates? Just because I know it will turn out wonderfully both days."

By this point Rose couldn't keep from laughing out loud and walked away from her friends to sit next to Remus.

"What's up with her?" Sirius asked, feeling confused.

"Well, young Miss Rose just finds my accent quite funny, although I must protest, I do think it's a wonderful accent and she was the one that has forced me to speak this way for the rest of the day."

"Are you allowed to at least explain why you are speaking this way?"

"Now that would ruin all the fun. So Darling, may I sit by you?"

"Of course." Sirius led Dimela over to where the Marauders had reserved seats.

Lily smiled at Dimela. "You do a wonderful southern accent, I'm surprised that we didn't try this sooner."

Dimela rolled her eyes and looked up at the stage as the house lights went off and the stage lights up.


	8. Elephan Love Medley

AN: If you aren't reading this far into the story, you are now officially missing out on some of the most fun and romantic bits we've got. Welcome to the Elephant Love Medley chapter, whereby everyone finds they're romantic partner. . .for a time. Still, there are plenty of obstacles to be overcome as you look forward to further chapters of All Love's a Stage. And reviews, should you happen to grace us with them, do ensure that the following chapter will be uploaded speedily.

* * *

**Fall, 1996**

Sirius stood outside of the brothel and shifted his weight slightly to be more comfortable. He had been drawn here by a sense of horrible boredom, since everyone in the castle had been celebrating Halloween without him, and by the obvious sense that he wanted to simply see Dimela again. Over the course of the past week, Sirius had convinced himself that Dimela's occupational status shouldn't be much of a hinderence, but now, standing outside of the brick building, he was beginning to have doubts again. He gazed at the dilapidated wall and its three doors, and mildly wondered what the other two were for. He closed his eyes and tried to get up the courage to enter or the dedication to leave, but was unable to do either. Instead he simply sighed and leaned somewhat against the wall, allowing himself to muse over how such a morally awkward place could emit such noisy, but relatively happy, sounds. He laughed quietly as the obvious answer occurred to him, they were selling pleasure after all, and he smiled calmly.

Dimela walked out into the cold from the farthest most door, with two other women on either side of her. All of them were in costume for Halloween. One dressed as a fallen angel, one a rundown fairy, and then Dimela wearing a black corset, short striped skirt with a slit down the side. Over her blonde curls was a large pirate hat with a large feather in the side, and then she wore combat boots and fishnet, a pirate hooker, or something of the sort.

"Ah, fresh air at the end of October, it's always the best." Dimela laughed and spun around a couple of times.

"I'd rather be inside with men all around me." One of the women said. Dimela laughed again and opened the door to the stage for the two of them.

"Mademoiselles." She gestured inside and the two women laughed and walked in.

"Dimela!" Sirius called out to her, surprising himself with the action.

Dimela spun around, letting the door slam closed. She cursed out loud at the sound and then looked at Sirius as if he were a mass murder that should be thrown into the pits of hell.

Sirius backed off slightly under the harsh gaze and then attempted to speak. "Um, hi?"

"Murderer. How dare you come here! I never want to see you, ever! You killed my best friend and you betrayed us all!" Dimela yelled at him, once again cursing, although this time for not carrying around her wand.

Sirius took a few more steps back and help up his hands defensively. "No, you've got it all wrong. I'd just assumed that if Rose knew, you would. . .Look, Peter Pettigrew is alive and well and I was never the secret keeper for the Potters."

Diemla laughed. "More of your lies. Old habits die hard I see." She crossed her arms and glared at him. "Why should I believe you, of all people?"

"Because Dumbledore will vouch for me, as will Remus Lupin, Rose Linyaari, and Harry Potter, and Severus Snape, though more grudgingly than the others. Mostly, though, you should believe because it's true." Sirius tried to keep his voice calm and confident, though he wasn't quite sure that he was succeeding.

Dimela looked undecided, as though there was something in her head that kept telling her to believe him and yet at the same time she had lived for sixteen years believing that he had killed her best friend. "What do you want Sirius?" She asked after a moment.

He shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. Company, to talk to you, that sort of thing."

Dimela laughed again. "So you just randomly decided 'Hey I'm going to talk to Dimela because I'm bored'?"

"Yes," he replied honestly. "Although I wasn't quite sure on whether I was going to actually have the courage to talk to you, for obvious reasons."

"Oh really? And what would those reasons be?" She asked snappily.

He shrugged. "Well, you do think that I'm a mass murderer."

"Is there any point to this?" Dimela asked, turning around and putting her hand on the door. "Because I don't see one and I think I'm going to leave you now."

"No!" Sirius grabbed Dimela's hand. "Don't, please."

"Why?" Dimela turned around. "I can't be late to work you know."

He laughed. "I didn't really know that, actually. Stay, well, because I love you."

"Oh please." Dimela got her hand free from Sirius. She leaned against the door and crossed her arms. "Love? That's the best you could come up with?"

"Does it mean nothing to you anymore?"

"It never meant anything to me ever. The last time I used the word I ended up being hurt."

"But I know it meant something to you then."

"Maybe." She shrugged. "Although we were sixteen then, when you're sixteen it's always 'love'." She made air quotes when saying the word love.

"It still is."

"No it's not Sirius. Get that through your thick head. It's not love and it never will be!" Dimela said it a bit harsher than she had meant too, the fear of being hurt again coming back to the surface as she faced Sirius.

"It always has been and always will be, you just won't admit it." Sirius took a prouder stance and recited, "Love is like oxygen, love is a many splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love."

Dimela shook her head. "Don't start that."

Sirius stuck his tongue out quickly. "All you need is love."

"A girl has got to eat!"

"All you need is love," Sirius repeated with a sing-song tone.

"She'll end up on the street!" She threw her hands up in disbelief.

"All you need is lurve," Sirius said tauntingly.

Dimela thought for a moment and turned around to face Sirius. "Love is just a game!"

"Life is just a game," he replied. "I was made for loving you, baby, and you were made for loving me."

"The only way you'll be loving me, baby," She walked over to a wall and leaned against it, rubbing her fingers together to indicate money, "is to pay a lovely fee."

Sirius shook his head. "In the name of love, just one night, in the name of love?"

Dimela shook her head in turn. "There's no way, 'cause you can't pay."

"In the name of love," Sirius pleaded, putting on his best puppy dog eyes.

She laughed and turned away from him. "You crazy fool, I won't give in to you!" She crossed her arms and headed towards the door into the brothel.

"Don't!" Sirius shouted unthinkingly, running closer to her. "Leave me this way," he finished, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I can't survive without your love. Please don't leave me this way."

Dimela turned and looked at him, their eyes locking for a moment before she walked away from him. "You'd think people would have had enough of . . . of silly love songs."

He looked at her hopefully. "I look around and see it isn't so."

She shook her head. "Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs."

"What's wrong with that?"

She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Love lifts us up where we belong." Sirius stood on a nearby pile of boxes. "Where eagles fly, on a. . ." he looked down, ". . .a mountain high."

Dimela laughed and rolled her eyes. "Sirius get down from there." She took his hand and pulled him down to the ground. "Love makes us act like fools!" Another laugh as she looked at the door. "Throw our lives away from one happy day."

"We could be heroes, if only for the one happy day you're awarding love."

She shook her head and pointed at Sirius. "You . . . you will be mean!"

Sirius laughed. "No, I won't."

"And I . . . I'll drink all the time!"

"We should be lovers," Sirius stated to change the topic.

"We can't do that."

"We should be lovers," Sirius repeated. "That's a fact."

"Though nothing will keep us together." She replied, turning to him.

"We could steal time, just one day."

"We could be heroes just for one day." Dimela repeated.

"Not just one day, forever! I will always love you, forever and ever and ever. . ."

Dimela sighed and finally gave in. "I can't help but love you."

Sirius hugged her. "Really?"

Dimela was about to reply when a woman walked out and looked at the two of them. "Dimela, you'd better get in here."

Dimela sighed. "I'm sorry, Sirius, it's my job. I have to go." She kissed his cheek and then walked in the door.

"La forza dell'amor," the woman said to Sirius, before following Dimela inside.

The door slammed, shutting Sirius out. Sirius sighed and walked away, but found himself humming happily as he apparated to the gates of Hogwarts.

"Well, people, we've finally decided on what musical we're going to do!" The seventh year girl in charge of drama club announced.

"Well, which one?" Some one in the crowd shouted.

"Why, it's Little Shop of Horrors, of course!" She exclaimed happily, forcing most of the purebloods to be lost in confusion and most of the muggle-borns to cheer happily.

Sirius was anxious to meet Dimela again. First, though, he was going to have to get some money if he was going to be guaranteed a large amount of time with her. Ideally a lot of money. Fortunately, Sirius knew someone that had a considerable amount of the stuff, also known as his godson. Therefore Padfoot spent nearly all of November tenth sleeping in the Gryffindor common room and awaiting Harry's return from classes.

Harry walked into the common room with Hermione and Ron in tow. When they saw the big black dog the three of them rushed over and sat down around him. "Hey snuffles." Harry said, patting the dog on the head and then looked around to see if anyone was in the common room. Most people that day were either sleeping in their dorms or out having fun, which left the common room completely empty, save the trio and the dog.

The dog quickly changed into a human being. "Hello, Harry."

"What's up?" He asked, leaning back in the couch that he had sat down in. Hermione and Ron mumbled little "hellos" and then sat back to watch the godson with the godfather.

"Well, I need money," Sirius said bluntly.

"For what?"

"For a night out. I'm getting fairly bored with sticking around the castle all the time."

Harry opened his mouth to reply but Hermione interrupted. "You can't just go out and have a night on the town! You're a wanted mass murderer! And you shouldn't ask Harry for money just because he has some, that's just not right."

"First of all, I can guarantee you that I'll steer clear of anywhere that might have wizards, and I can guarantee you that all muggles have lost interest in me. Secondly, it is much more correct asking Harry for money because he has some than to ask Remus for money because he has almost none."

Hermione rolled her eyes and didn't say anything.

"Of course you can have some money Sirius. How much do you need?"

"I'm not quite sure."

Harry nodded and ran up to the dorm. He grabbed a bag and stuffed it with money then ran back down and handed it to Sirius. "Just bring back whatever you don't spend." He laughed.

"Well, of course, I wouldn't think of doing otherwise. I'll pay you back, well, eventually. Thanks, Harry."

Harry nodded. "Well I'm going to go to sleep, I've had an exhausting day." He hugged Sirius and walked up to the dorms, followed by Hermione and Ron.

Sirius almost skipped away with joy, and waited with high amounts of impatience for an opportunity to go back to London.

It wasn't until later that night, around ten o'clock that Remus had left Sirius alone, giving him a chance to sneak out of the castle and head over to London.

Sirius took the opportunity immediately, and apparated to outside of the brothel. This time, though, he was more confident, and walked inside without a second thought.

Dimela was at a table talking with some guy and sipping on wine. She looked incredibly bored as the man talked and talked and talked about what was probably his life and how depressed he was, and that sort of thing.

"Well, my dear, I'm sure it will all be better soon. That's what we're here for after all, to make your life much more interesting," Dimela said after a while, her voice dripping with sweetness.

Sirius quietly walked up behind her. "Well, that's just perfect, because my life's been dead boring for the past week or so."

Dimela jumped at his voice and turned around to glare at him. "What are you doing here? I don't need this right now!"

"You don't need what? Talk of love or that sort of thing?"

"Yes!" she snapped, then turned back to the man with a smile. "I'm sorry about this."

"How much would a night with you cost, Dimela?"

"More than you have, Sirius."

"In a numerical form, please."

Dimela looked at Sirius for a moment to see if he was just toying with her, then looked back at the man. "You'll have to excuse me, please." She stood up and walked Sirius to a corner of the room. "One hundred and thirty six, For a night."

"Fine, a number and a unit. Is this in pounds or apples?"

"Pounds, although you could throw in an apple if you'd like. And that doesn't include kissing or long extensive rants about how much you love me. For that you have to pay extra." She crossed her arms.

"Well, I unfortunately do lack apples. However, I believe I have enough money." Sirius pulled out a fairly large amount of money from the bag, and thanked goodness that Harry carried around some muggle money.

Dimela couldn't help but to gape at the money. "But . . . how?" She asked in disbelief.

"Lily and James had good life insurance."

"So you stole it from Harry!?" Dimela glared again at Sirius and had to fight the urge to slap him.

"No, borrowed, with Harry's full permission. Actually, I didn't tell him the exact purpose of the money, but close enough."

"Well fine, go get some girl, I don't want anything to do with you." She turned on her heel and started walk away, while looking for any bloke with was lonely.

"Well, Dimela, that's just too bad, because I really only want you. I can even avoid ranting about love, if you want."

"Fine then buy me, I'm only a lowly prostitute I can't do any about it. It's all up to you." She looked at Sirius and waited for him to do something.

"And how exactly would I do that? Forgive me, but I don't exactly attempt this sort of thing on a regular basis. Do I pay you directly, or the barman, or what?"

Dimela sighed and shook her head. "Uh huh, well you pay me." She laughed and took Sirius' hand, then walked him through the brothel and up some stairs and then over a while, then down some stairs and finally she opened a door and let Sirius in.

The room was very simple, with a nice bed with silk sheets, a dresser, a desk with a mirror and then a simple little mat on the ground where a tabby cat lay looking out at Dimela and Sirius.

"Ah, how cute. What's the kitty's name?"

Dimela laughed. "Kitty? He's twelve, Hun, not that young." She sat down on the bed after closing the door. "His name is Kimi."

Sirius sat on the mat and pet the cat. "Well, hello, Kimi."

Kimi meowed at Sirius and then rubbed up against his leg and stretched out, starting to purr.

Dimela rolled her eyes and lay down on the bed. "You bought me not my cat." She said after a little while.

"Kimi, I think Dimela's actually jealous of you," Sirius said in the type of voice that people use when they're talking to small children. However, he did stop petting the cat and looked up at Dimela. "That's true. So, how has you're week been?"

"I'm not jealous of my cat." Dimela muttered. "My week has been just fine, a lot of guys have come this week."

Kimi stood up and looked at Sirius when he stopped petting him, then meowed and lay down on the other side of the mat, facing the wall and closed his eyes.

"So, you get to gradually become quite rich. Would any of those guys have been appealing to you even without the monetary exchange?"

"I suppose. Although I don't really think about that." She shrugged. "Never mix work with pleasure."

"That's somewhat sad really. It seems that one of the main reason why you'd go into that sort of job would be for the pleasure of it."

"Well it's not." She laughed and closed her eyes. "Well Sirius, what do you want?"

"A perfectly valid question. How about, world peace, infinite money, and most importantly to not be thought of as a criminal, also I would like happiness and for you to love me."

She was silent for a moment or two, then looked over at him. "I mean for tonight."

"Well, if that could all come true overnight I'd be very happy. More seriously though, I don't quite know."

She sighed. "Well, you see, most people come here to buy us for the night and to sleep with us, now I suppose that you would also like some thing out of this. After all last time I saw you, you went off on a whole speech about love."

"Yes, but you could look further into that speech to determine that I am a hopeless romantic, and forcing you into that sort of thing would bug my conscience."

"Forcing me into what sort of thing?"

"By way of money, of course. However, I have almost no qualms about forcing you to at least talk to me, thus the present situation."

"Well Sirius, How's the weather?"

"Cold, somewhat cloudy, that sort of thing. Does your cat always stay here?"

"Yes, he does."

"Wow, that is one cat that knows a lot about the human reproductive system."

"He doesn't watch, hun." Dimela said while trying to keep a straight face, which she failed at. "So did you hear that Rose and Remus almost kissed?"

"Yes, but he typically backed out at the last minute. Those two are idiots sometimes. So, do you watch your cat while you're making love?"

"If the guy is boring, then yes, I sometimes do."

"And what does the cat do? Play with yarn so as to be more exciting than the guy?"

She laughed and rolled over on to her side so she was facing Sirius. "So, Sirius, how's life been for you? Anything exciting happen within the past few years?"

"No, not really. Azkaban is really a terribly dull experience, and I haven't had time to do anything truly exciting except run while I've been on the run."

"Well okay. I think it's official that we have nothing to talk about that's actually interesting."

"You are the one who banned love rants."

"That's not to interesting. But fine, Sirius, go on a love rant, and while you're at it think of a better name for the love rants."

"Well, see, that's part of your problem. You've given up on love so entirely that you no longer even consider it to be interesting. Also, demanding that I go on a love rant on cue is like demanding that you just are automatically aroused on cue. It's something that is supposed to have to be inspired, not just flop out. I guess it can function without inspiration, but it is sort of ridiculous that way. Why, I bet you haven't actually had any good sex at all within the past year. Oh, and what do you think of just calling it 'that, again?'"

Dimela was silent as she thought over what Sirius said and then just kept on being silent as she was at a lack for what to say. She flopped over onto her back and closed her eyes. "What if I told you that I still loved you Sirius? Or does that have to wait until the middle of sex when I had 'inspiration'?" She asked.

"I think that I would probably be able to accept such a declaration now, as we've both had plenty of time to think over such things. However, I might have to ask you if you were sure."

"And then I might have to ask you how I would be sure if I was sure? Seeing as you are all knowing in this area."

"Well, I would probably recommend a kiss, as that always seems to work in corny novels. However you have forbidden kissing."

"Well you have to pay extra for kissing, it's the rule."

"Why?"

"Because a kiss it more personal."

"Which is exactly my point."

"Well then, I can make an exception for you . . . if you'd like."

"Well, yes." Sirius tried to control the maniacal grin that was threatening to give away just how happy he was about this turn of events.

Dimela laughed a bit when she looked at him, but didn't move from her spot on the bed. "You know, this bed is very comfortable. You wouldn't expect that from a bed in a place like this, although I guess I wouldn't really know that, seeing as last time I was on the bed of a prostitute it was in Jekyll and Hyde and you guys were trying to figure out if the bed was long enough for Remus and Rose to lay on, and that one felt like a lump of rocks." She laughed a bit, this whole talk about the bed coming from her trying not to be nervous.

"Well, props are never as good as the real thing, but you wouldn't really expect people to pay so much money to sleep on a lump of rocks, would you?" He got up and sat next to her on the bed. "You're right, it is comfy."

"See. And that's not always true, as long as the girl is good the guys don't really care where they do it. And also that one prop of the desk in Jekyll's house, that was a lot better than any desk I've ever seen."

"Well, you clearly haven't been looking at the right desks. If you've ever seen the one in McGonagall's office you'd flip over how nice it is."

"I'm sure I would, but I haven't seen that desk." She smiled and took Sirius's hand in hers. "I may have to go to Hogwarts just to see that desk now."

"It would be fun to watch you explain that to her," Sirius replied, though his mind was preoccupied with just how nice Dimela's lips looked.

"I suppose I'll do that then, before Remus and Rose leave." She yawned a bit and looked up at Sirius.

Sirius looked into her eyes. "So, about that kiss. . ."

"What about it? Do you need a lesson on how to kiss?"

"No, but it did land us on the topic of desks." He leaned in and kissed her. The kiss was very much just a test between the two of them to see if they wanted to try it again, yet they quickly got over the initial awkwardness of recent inexperience and the kiss became their world. Affectionate and passionate, the fairly simple kiss left an amorous emotional aftertaste.

Dimela smiled serenely. "Well, I always have wanted to snog on a desk." She replied after the kiss.

"Mm, desk snogging."

"Doesn't it just sound so delightful?"

"And somewhat scary."

She laughed. "Well . . ."

"Well?"

"I have run out of things to say."

"How disappointing."

"It was a good kiss."

"Your lips taste as good as your shampoo smells."

Dimela looked at Sirius and tried not to laugh. "Well, um, thank you."

"It's my honor. I do love you, after all."

"Yes, I've been told that."

"I know."

"Okay, this whole conversation is getting slightly pointless now. I would say that it's some form of foreplay, but seeing as it's just dragging on and on I don't think that would be true."

"Well, it did have a point, but you let the moment pass." He thought about it. "May I kiss you again?"

"You may kiss me as much as you want, tonight at least."

* * *

**Marauders' Fifth Year**

"Remus, Remus!" Sirius yelled, dashing up the stair to the boys' dormitory in the Gryffindor tower. "Remus! I. . .we've. . .there's something you need to see!" he called as he entered the room Remus, Peter, and James shared.

Remus rolled his eyes at the commotion his friend was causing. "Sirius, calm down. I told you, I've got to study. There are OWLS this year, and, unlike some people, I'm unwilling to try taking them off of natural talent alone. I don't have time for this. I've really got to make up for what anyone else could be doing tomorrow, during the full moon."

"Remus! This is more important than that and it won't take very long anyway. I could just tell you what was happening, but you wouldn't believe me. Now," he reached over and closed Remus's copy of _Magical History for Those that CANNOT pay Attention in Class: The Exceedingly Long Title with no Real Point to it_. "If you would calmly follow me downstairs before I'm forced to throw that one silver necklace that I got for that girl that I wound breaking up with before I could give it to her, whatsherface. Anyway, the point, you'll suffer if you don't follow me when I walk out of this room." Sirius turned around and marched out of the door.

Sirius glanced behind him as he walked down the stairs and toward the picture of the fat lady, and was satisfied to see that Remus was, as a matter of fact, following him. He continued to walk down flight after flight of stairs until he reached the main floor of Hogwarts, where he abruptly turned to the right, then the left, and walked out of the main entrance.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and many of the students were outside, so Sirius and Remus managed to go unnoticed as they walked into the Forbidden Forest. From there they walked a while longer until a stag trotted out of a clump of trees to greet them.

Remus stared at the stag blankly for a few seconds while the stag did it's equivalent of smirking at him. Sirius chose to explain, "Remus J. Lupin, I would like to introduce you to, Prongs."

Prongs bowed his head at the name and then shook his head a bit, messing up his mane so that it looked as if he had just been on a nice windy run, or flying.

Remus walked closer to Prongs. "James, you really managed it. I can't believe you really did it." He looked at the animal sternly. "You could get in such huge amounts of trouble for this."

The stag grinned and soon in his place stood James Potter, looking very smug. "All the better that way." He laughed and ran his hand through his hair, "You should see Peter."

"Where is Peter?" Remus asked. "What is Peter, for that matter?"

James jerked his finger to the ground where a nice plump brown rat sat, looking up at Remus and James with an almost embarrassed expression.

Remus picked the rat up. "He's so cute."

"I swear this man is gay." James said to Sirius.

Sirius laughed. "Bi, maybe, we can't deny his crush on Rose, even if he can."

"Yes, well, why don't you show Remus your wonderful animal?"

Sirius smirked, and a large, black dog took his place and wagged its tail at Remus.

Remus smiled. "Very nice, Sirius. When did you guys first manage this?"

"Yesterday." James laughed. "We even have names! I'm Prongs, he's Wormtail," he pointed to the rat, "Sirius is Padfoot, and you're Moony!"

Remus placed Wormtail on the ground. "You gave my wolf side a name," he said, clearly amused.

James laughed and patted his friend on the back. "So, next full moon, mate, we'll be there for you."

Remus was both delighted and frightened by it. "I'm not sure that that's such a good idea. So many things could go wrong." He hoped that James would convince him to go along with it anyway.

"When have we ever listened to what you think?" James laughed. "Don't worry, nothing will go wrong. We've got it all planned out and there's no way it can go wrong. So sorry, but you're stuck with us."

Padfoot nodded and stood next to James, showing his clear support.

Remus laughed. "I just can't believe that you guys actually managed it."

"Us either."

* * *

**Winter, 1996**

12 Grimmauld Place was decorated beautifully for Christmas. Molly had strongly encouraged and threatened her children into cleaning the place until it sparkled, and the Christmas decorations were both numerous and vivid. Happy Santa faces and luxurious red and green curtains covered the portraits that couldn't be removed from the wall. All of the Order of the Pheonix, minus one Severus Snape, which didn't dissapoint anyone, was set on celebrating the holiday as joyously as they could. The happy, bustling atmosphere of the place seemed perfectly natural to the time of year.

All of this made it hard for Remus to leave the house, even for a few minutes, just enough to give Rose her present. However, he was set on getting the present to Rose during Christmas itself, and therefore did manage to say good bye to everyone and floo back to Hogwarts. From the fireplace near the front entrance, Remus scanned the general area, and found that Rose was standing next to the door to the Great Hall.

Rose was standing at the door, almost right under some mistletoe. She was standing beside Severus and a student had just walked over to her. "Severus I'll meet you there." She said to him, and he nodded and left. "Yes Miss Thomas?"

"Professor Linyaari, I have a question about something in the Arithmancy book." The student replied with a smile. She was a Ravenclaw forth year, with apparently nothing better to do but to read textbooks.

"Um, okay, what's the question?"

And so the student asked her question and Rose explained it her, and they had a little chat before the student thanked Rose and walked back into the great hall.

Remus laughed, as Rose had moved slightly toward the end of conversation so that she was now standing directly under the mistletoe. For the sake of it, Remus walked over to Rose and kissed her.

Rose screamed and fell to the ground when this happened and then looked at Remus as if he had grown a few extra heads and turned blue. She opened her mouth and no noise came out for a couple of minutes so she gave up on that and just closed her mouth again and looked at Remus.

"Mistletoe," Remus said happily.

Rose looked up and sure enough there was the mistletoe. She nodded and finally swallowed down the frog in her throat. "It's nice to see you Remus, I thought you were at the house." She said, and then mentally kicked herself at the stupidity of that remark. He had just kissed her and all she could say in response was that.

"I was, but I wanted to give you your present."

"I don't think there's anything else you can give me that I'd want more than that kiss." She replied.

"Well, I still have something that I bought for you anyway. It's up in my room, though." Remus blushed at her past comment.

Rose slightly blushed at that and nodded. "Then you should go and get it."

Remus nodded. "Well, how about you come with me, then?"

She blushed even more. "Uh, sure."

Attempting not to look like a ripe tomato, Remus led the way up the stairs. "So, how has Christmas been for you so far?"

"Extremely boring actually. How about yourself?" Rose asked, following behind him.

"It's been fun, it's such a nice day."

"Yes, it is I suppose."

"Well, everyone is so cheerful, and the sky was clear, but there was sparkling snow on the ground. It was, well, a white Christmas."

"It was very beautiful."

"Yep," Remus replied. "Well, here we are."

Rose nodded and waited for Remus to actually open the door and walk inside.

As if in response to Rose's thoughts, Remus opened the door, but he held it open for Rose to walk in first.

Rose walked in and took a deep breath. There they were in Remus's office, all alone, after he had just kissed her. It seemed like the whole kiss thing hadn't really happened, Rose's mind was still trying to register it. "So . . ."

Remus walked over near the bed and picked up a box that was wrapped in red paper with gold ribbons. "So, here's your present."

Rose walked over and took it from him, her hand resting in his for a moment. "So may I open it now?"

Remus nodded. "Of course."

Rose laughed, a little giggle like laugh, then untied the ribbons and opened up the box to see a book of fairy tales, signed by one of the authors. "Oh thank you Remus." She replied, flipping through the pages.

"Your welcome, I hope you like it."

Rose smiled and nodded. "I have a present for you, too." She said after a while. She looked up at him.

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Well, what is it?"

Rose laughed. "I can't tell you that, you'll have to wait to open it. But I don't have it with me right now. If you'd like I could go and get it, it's in Severus's office, seeing as he had the paper to wrap it in."

"Oh, okay."

"Would you like me to get it?" She asked.

"Yes, that would be great."

Rose nodded and left the office, a bit sadly since she was leaving him, then walked down to the dungeons and knocked on Severus's door.

"Hello," Severus said as he heard her approach.

Rose walked in and smiled. "I have to grab the present for Remus." She said, walking in and picking up a box.

"Okay," Severus said, sounding very slightly disappointed.

Rose smiled and walked out of the office then back up to Remus's office and handed the box to Remus. "There you go."

Remus opened the present carefully to find The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and a photo book. Remus quickly flipped through the books. "Thank you," he said, and kissed her again. He began to wonder where he was getting this confidence.

Rose's heart seemed to skip a beat every time that he had kissed her. "You're very welcome."

"So, what now?"

"I don't know."

"Okay. Well, we could read our respective presents."

Rose laughed. "Then read me The Lorax." She replied, plopping down on the floor and crossing her legs, then looking up at Remus waiting.

Remus opened the book. "At the far end of town, where the Grickle-grass grows and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows and no birds ever sing excepting the crows. . ." he began.

And so they went on, him reading the book and her listening. After a little while Rose lied down on the ground and she looking up at the ceiling as he finished the book.

"One of the most sad stories Dr. Seuss wrote," Remus commented.

"I liked it." Rose replied with a smile.

"Well, I'm glad that you liked it."

She laughed but didn't say anything in response. It seemed so weird that she was lying on the floor of his room, and he was sitting there and they were together, well not together, but in a room together, which was enough to set Rose's heart aflame.

"You want to go out sometime?"

"Like . . . on a date? A real date?" She sat up.

"Yes," Remus replied nervously.

Rose nodded. "I would love that."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Well, great," Remus took a deep breath. "You look beautiful."

Rose blushed and looked down at herself. She was wearing a red dress, her way of celebrating the Holiday's. "Thank you."

"You know, I've always thought that your eyes were almost hypnotic, they make me think of forests in spring, but maybe I've been read _The Last Unicorn_ too many times to really make a valid comment."

Rose laughed and stood up, she walked over to Remus and sat on her knees in front of him. "I believe you have read that too many times, but thank you, very much." She smiled and laid her head on his knee.

It was a mark of how confident Remus was feeling that he didn't recoil at her touch. Instead he simply stared into her eyes.

This confidence that Remus had and kept getting more of was giving Rose a little more confidence, but mostly it scared Rose, as Remus had never been so confident around her.

"So, what would you like to do for the rest of the night?"

Rose shrugged. "Don't you have to get back to the house, Remus?" She asked.

"Not necessarily."

"Well, it would be quiet rude to just leave and not go back."

"I could go back somewhat later anyway."

"Well, if you stayed what would you want to do?" Rose asked after a moment.

Remus shrugged. "I don't know. We could look over these pictures that you gave me and figure it out from there."

"I've looked those pictures over a million times. Although you can do that, and I will leave you." She stood up.

"No, don't leave."

She nodded and looked at him. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

"Okay." She laughed and sat down on the bed.

Remus thoughts wandered back to his sudden burst of confidence. "Oh," he said as he realized it was only two days until the full moon.

Rose's thoughts seemed to be the same as Remus's as she thought about how soon the full moon was. She sighed, it wasn't as nice when it was all caused from the cursed moon. "Well . . ."

"Well?"

"You've got a comfortable bed." She said after a moment, as she sat on the edge of the bed and bounced on it a bed. "It's all fluffy."

"Well, I figure that bed's something that you want to have a fairly good variation of."

"Yes that's true."

"Do you have a soft bed?"

Rose shrugged. "It's soft I suppose. But I would much rather have your bed, it's so much softer."

"Well, you can sleep here tonight, if you want," Remus didn't quite think about the implications of this offer until he had already said it.

Rose, however, did think of the implications before he even finished his statement and she just sat on the bed, her mind gone completely blank.

Remus blushed, but didn't immediately take it back.

"Are you serious?" Rose asked after a moment.

"Sure?" Remus said, though he didn't sound sure.

Rose laughed and shook her head. "I'll be okay in my own bed." She replied.

"Okay." He decided that that was both a relief and a disappointment.

She nodded and lay back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. "So how is every one at the house?" She asked, trying to get her mind off of what was happening.

"Cheery, they're quite enjoying themselves."

"That's good."

"Yeah, it is. How's everyone here?"

"Every one seems pretty bored."

"On Christmas? That's somewhat sad."

"Well yeah, but there's not much to do around here Remus. After all most people are gone."

Remus laughed. "I love you."

Rose was perfectly silent after this, she closed her eyes and smiled. Those three words had more effect on her than the kiss. "Remus, I love you too." She replied quietly.

Remus heard this and blushed vividly. He tried to open his mouth to say something, but couldn't think of anything to say.

Rose moved on the bed so that her head was on the pillow and her feet at the end of the bed, or at least near it, then she sighed and closed her eyes, waiting for Remus to do something or say something. She was very comfortable on that bed and could just lay there forever if time would just stop with her. But that wasn't going to happen. She groaned and looked at Remus.

There was a silence that seemed to last forever as she lay there and he sat there and they just stared at each other. It seemed like a magically moment, the two of them, there in the room together, her on his bed and him just sitting there on the chair. Secretly Rose wished that Remus's confidence stream would continue and, well he would do something, instead of keeping her waiting.

Remus stared at her and allowed his mind to wander back to the wonderful sensation that was kissing her. He felt that he had already forgotten some of the pleasure of it, and, backed by her declaration of love, he tried kissing her again, this time with somewhat more passion than previously.

Rose tried to sit up when he kissed her but couldn't and in the end just stayed lying down, wrapping her arms around him. "Deja vu." She muttered.

Remus look confused for a moment, then quickly realized what she was talking about and laughed.

She smiled and this time was the one that started the kiss, pulling him down on her.


End file.
